Waiting Well Does Us All Good

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

Remember that old saying, I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream? Well, in today’s world ice cream isn’t what’s causing most folk to run around screaming in silent frustration. It’s waiting. We’re a sorry bunch of “waiters” aren’t we? Our entire nation wants, no, demands that needs be met immediately. Whether the coveted object(ive) is small or large, matters not. Americans young and old are continually being fed the fabrication that if we desire something, it is within our power and rights to obtain it. No delay required.

We Are All Waiting For Something

Too bad real life begs to disagree. And disagree it does. Consider all that you’ve waited for in your own life. We wait to get better after feeling ill. We wait for someone to reply to an urgent request. We wait for doctors, dentists, hair stylists, spouses, children. We wait in lines. We wait for our turn. We wait to be heard. We wait to be found or found out. We wait for a better job. We wait to receive an education. We wait for repair technicians, for parts, for labor, for bills. We wait to hear the weather. We wait for the sports news, evening news, bad news, good news, any news at all. Let’s face it, for a huge portion of our lives we must wait.

We Can Learn To Wait Well

Since in large measure, waiting is life and life is waiting; why not learn to wait the best way we can? Let’s switch around former assumptions and learn to view wait time as the opportune time to: develop quietness, listen better, see more clearly, contemplate tough decisions, reflect and be thankful. We can do this. We can. If we choose to use all that anxiety-ridden energy and channel it into a different direction, our waiting will be transformed.

We’ll be changed and as we accept waiting as a necessary ally rather than a mortal adversary, everything about “us” will alter too. There will suddenly be more time for what’s important, for appreciating the subtle beauty of daily life, and for resting contentedly wherever we find ourselves. We can take comfort that time is fluid, moving, and never stagnant. No matter how long the wait, or how painful, it won’t last forever. History proves this. It should also convince us that there are moments and spaces of time when it is only after we traverse through the waiting stage that genuine hope arrives on the scene.

Let Us Learn To Wait On God

Author Ken Gire writes, “We can’t hurry the dawn, no matter how anxiously we pace the floor or how impatiently we watch the clock. And so the question is not do we wait or not wait, because waiting is all we can do. The question is, how will we wait? Will we wait well…or will we wait poorly?”

How We Wait

W – warm up to the concept of waiting well. Think back to all the times you rushed ahead, emotionally propelled, rather than taking it one thoughtful step at a time. How often did “rushing ahead” really ever benefit you? Moreover, how frequently did it cause undue pain either to yourself or someone else?
A – accept waiting as an integral part of life. There’s no changing this fact, waiting is part of every day. Despite our hurry, hurry mentality, waiting does us good as we accept it, make peace with it, and quietly allow waiting to do its inner work in our hearts and minds.
I – instill periods of waiting into your hours and days. Set aside precious minutes to simply be still…and see how these moments of inactivity help you to re-interpret what’s really important. By purposefully stepping back, and stepping out of the fray…we learn to see better…live better…but it doesn’t happen without us taking responsibility for the time allotted us.
T – talk back to yourself during those stretches when waiting feels unbearable. Don’t just listen to negative self-condemning mind chatter…speak against it with real truth found in the promises of God that speak of His faithfulness, His unchangeableness, His constancy, despite unnerving circumstances.