I'm sitting here waiting...with my stomach in a knot.
Yes, this is pathetic, but I'm a complete nervous wreck, waiting to hear how our Brougthon High School golf team played today in the first of two rounds at the State Championship. Our son is a senior, and he's been out virtually the whole season with a foot injury, so we're mighty thankful he's able to play again. But geez, how are they all doing? All I know is our son had a tough first hole...so that's super comforting and really helped my nerves. Sigh. Help me Jesus.
I'm waiting and wondering with great trepidation how our guys are playing. We love this special group of young men. They're all mighty close, and for all our seniors on the team, this is it. After four wonderful years together, this is their grand finale. So in addition to my frayed nerves, there's also the sadness that this little window of life is closing. Our children are growing up and leaving us. Oh mercy, someone just put me out of my misery.
I think I'd just as soon have a root canal.
This is ridiculous to get worked up over a golf game. Yes, I know, know, know that. We have dear friends dealing with all kinds of incredibly difficult challenges--from prodigal children to painful diseases to parents who have gone home to be with the Lord. And I'm sitting here worrying over a silly golf tournament? Good grief, forgive me Father.
But here's the thing: waiting is without a doubt one of the toughest things any of us ever has to do. And my little, piddly waiting right now is just a tiny reflection of some of the very real and very hard waiting many dear friends are enduring right now.
We all have to wait. Waiting on colleges. Waiting on a baby. Waiting on a diagnosis. Waiting on a missing loved one. Waiting on the outcome of something we dread.
Don't we all hate to wait? Why is that? Maybe it's our impatience. Or lack of control. Or desire to know the future. Or our sinful tendency to want to be able to control everything.
Or perhaps it's that all too often fear creeps into that gap left open by our waiting. We allow fear to multiply in the midst of that wait, and we forget all too quickly about God's goodness to us in the past. We forget about His power, His provision, and His perfect plans and ways for our lives.
Waiting can lead to forgetting. Forgetting leads to fearing. And fearing leads to failing to trust. Happens every cotton picking time we allow fear to seep into those waiting gaps.
Just one example? The Israelites in the Old Testament as they were wandering in the dessert and on their way to the promised land under the leadership of Moses. God miraculously provided for them time and again, but what would those Israelites do? Forget. Forget God's faithfulness. Forget God's love. Forget God's provision. Forget God's power.
Here's how Ps.106:12-13 puts it. Right after recounting how God miraculously delivered them from slavery and through the Red Sea and then destroyed their Egyptian enemies in that same sea, we're told: "Then they believed His words; they sang His praise. [Yessir, you go Israelites! Praising and thanking the Lord until....] But they soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel."
For pete's sake, can you believe that?? How could anybody have such a short memory??
Well, actually, me for one. Maybe you too.
How many times has God come through for us? For our loved ones? For our friends? How many times has He provided just the right word of encouragement we needed at the most desperate time? Yet all too quickly, when the next challenge rears it's ugly head...or the next waiting time drags on and on...we forget. Then we fear. Then we fail (or refuse) to have faith in our ever-faithful Lord. Oh forgive us, Father!
So what should we do instead? In those waiting times, in those gaps, rather than allowing fear to control us, we turn, by faith, to God's promises. We focus on the size of our God rather than the size of our problem. We fixate on how great our Lord is rather than on how grating our wait is.
We choose thankfulness and praise over complaining and fear. We do what the Psalmist says at the end of this same Psalm--we turn to God and His Word in prayer and praise. "Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to Your holy name and glory in your praise. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, 'Amen!' Praise the Lord!"
We read His Word. We turn to Him in prayer. We praise Him for His greatness. We thank Him for His goodness. We remember Who He is and what He has done.
Thank You, Lord, for all You teach us in the waiting periods of our lives. Thank You for Your amazing grace. Thank You for Your forgiveness when we so quickly forget and fear. Help us instead to look to You and Your glorious promises. Replace our worrying with worship, and our fear with faith. For You are forever faithful, forever good, and forever full of grace.
To God be the glory.
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