Our soul waits for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.
Psalm 33:20-22
Do you know what I see in those verses? That it is possible for every one of us to have a glad heart when we are waiting. And it freaks me out if I'm honest.
How can our heart be glad when we're waiting on something we want really bad? Gladness comes (in part) from knowing you’ve seen Him show up before. You've seen Him do it before. You've heard Him say, “watch this!” Then miracles unfolded. Not everyday, but enough times to know He is able.
Ever notice, we do a lot of waiting in our faith? God says, "wait" quite a bit in the scriptures. It's over 100 times. Based on my experience with God, that tells me two things:
A. God is a good Dad
B. we tend to run ahead of Him
If you aren't in a season of waiting now, you might be soon. When that comes, you will have the opportunity to worship in that waiting.
Monday afternoon we were driving as a family to see some friends and I got a voicemail. It was a coach from one of the club teams we really liked. I pulled over. Called the coach back, and he offered my son a spot on his team. I finished the call, and then told the car.
There was yelling. There was cheering. Oliver was smiling his biggest smile. We celebrated that. And even though it's just baseball, and it's just kid sports, it felt like an act of kindness from the Father toward our family. It felt like we could see why God said, 'wait'. We were grateful for His kindness to show us and to answer our simple prayers.
Here's the truth: it doesn't always work out that way. We don't always get to see the plan carry itself out. There's plenty I'm still waiting on in this life, and I'm not confident I'll see the things I am pining for. Many of them are infinitely more important than baseball.
Some of us are waiting for the Lord to do something significant in our lives. We're waiting for Him to provide clarity on our calling or help us make a major life decision. We're waiting for him to provide a spouse or a child we've longed for. Or maybe waiting for someone we know and care about to finally have their eyes opened to the path of destruction they are on, and to know Christ for the first time and begin a new path of restoration and love. We have an ache that fades in and out of our thoughts throughout the week. We're waiting. It hurts.
Maybe its far more urgent or far more pressing than that. We're waiting for the doctors to tell us how long we've got to live. We're waiting to see if our spouse meets us half way and healing can begin. We’re waiting to see if our next visit to our aging parent is the one where they forget who we are. We’re waiting to see if the state rips our foster child out of our home.
Every breath in the mean time feels a bit harder.
The waiting is exhausting. It's not the kind of tired a nap can fix.
If you're reading this I want you to know that Christ is with you in the waiting.
Your body may war against you.
Your marriage may war against you.
But the prince of peace has never left your side.
You may feel like you're not sure you can go another day.
But your days are in His hands.
And you may only have the smallest amount of praise and trust left.
But God can carry you in the waiting.
Even with the smallest amount of faith, even faith that is surrounded by walls of doubt, you can watch as your praise and trust turn waiting into worship.