Waiting and worshipping

     Moses... waiting at the foot of the stairs for the children to wake up and come downstairs.
     This is what he does every single morning.  Moses gets us early with me, but then he eagerly anticipates the next thing on the agenda: the children slowly straggling downstairs.
     And he will be ready to greet every single one of them.
     It's hard to be grumpy when you have such a sweet boy there to welcome you.  Always enthusiastic.  Always acting as if he hasn't seen you for months, rather than hours.  You can sure learn an awful lot from a dog.  Help me to love like that, Lord.  Extravagantly, enthusiastically, unconditionally... and patiently.
     So Moses is ready to love them--
     And in the meantime, he patiently waits and waits...
     Might you be encouraged today in your waiting...  Because waiting is something we all have to do a lot of, isn't it?  And it's also one of the hardest things we ever have to do.  In fact, I know I've talked about it many a time... because it's just so relentlessly common to life.
     Waiting fills the Scripture.  Noah and his family waiting in the ark. Moses and the Israelites wandering and waiting in the desert for 40 longs years, desperate to enter the promised land.  Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Rachel, Hannah, Elizabeth and Zechariah.... so many folks, Old Testament and New, waiting for a baby.  David hiding from Saul and waiting for years for his promised throne.
     And once again, I've learned, there's no antidote better for waiting than worshipping.  Making the hard choice in the midst of long, hard waiting to worship and place your hope in God.
     "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I hope,  my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with Him is plentiful redemption." (Ps.130:5-7)
     When we hope in the Lord, we choose, by faith, to worship Him and thank Him for who He is, what He has done, and what He is and will do.  Like our good old dog Moses expectantly, but patiently, waiting at the foot of the stairs, we choose to wait on and worship God, anticipating and knowing He is working and He is worthy.  Even when we can't see evidence of that working.  Because He is always working, even in the dark, even in the waiting... especially in the waiting.
      Keep thanking and praising even as you wait.   And when the anxiety and frustration creep back it, go back to the cross and do it again.  And then do it again.  And again.  By faith.  It's that "long obedience in the same direction."
     So today, might we thank Him even in the waiting.  Trusting, knowing, He is working and He is worthy.  Because He always always is.  To God be the glory.