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archive: march 2011
momentum...
archive: march 2011
the waiting game
by emma heddle
Being a pretty poor gap year student has not only meant living off beans on toast for the past few months, it has also meant serious deprivation from essential TV viewing as I couldn’t afford a TV set. So you can imagine my excitement when someone took pity on me and my housemates by donating a TV to us! At last I could catch up on some crucial watching.
My technical skills however are extremely limited, so much so that I tend to break anything electrical by just going near it. It’s fair to say I hadn’t a clue how to set up a TV and actually get it working. Nevertheless, with the thought of being able to watch Desperate Housewives spurring me on I decided I couldn’t wait for anyone else’s help. I started by opening the instruction booklet, however after 10 minutes of frustration I was determined the instructions were only slowing me down. I could do it better, and more importantly quicker, on my own.
So, throwing aside the seemingly useless manual, I attempted it by myself. But after another hopeless half hour I accepted that I’d have to live with my impatience and finally admit defeat.
I felt frustrated. Here was a TV that should be working, but had a screen that was still as blank as when I started. My unwillingness to follow the instructions properly was rooted in the idea that I could do things quicker by myself. My impatience meant I wasn’t prepared to wait for anyone else’s help.
We live in a world that wants everything now. We’re used to immediacy. Whether it’s fast food, same day delivery or even fast track tickets for theme parks. We expect to have things how we want them, when we want them. We live in an age of impatience, where delay isn’t an option. And why should it be? Surely in this fast paced society we shouldn’t have to endure the inconvenience of waiting?
I think it’s so easy to transfer that mindset to our relationship with God. Sometimes I catch myself becoming frustrated, irritated even, at the thought of waiting. Why can’t I know his plans for me now? Why do I have to wait?
Ecclesiastes 3 v 11 tells us that God “does everything just right and on time, but people can never completely understand what He is doing.”
It’s so easy to forget that God’s timing is different to our own. Where we just see one piece of the jigsaw, God sees the whole puzzle. Everything that God plans will be done in his, and only his, perfect timing. We so often fail to remember the determining factor isn’t when we want something to happen, but what is best for us in the grand plan of our lives.
Photo by Flickr member That Guy Named Jerre. Here used under a Creative Commons lisence. Original photo...
It’s easy to say we will be patient and wait on God, but in reality when the circumstances arise, it’s much easier to take matters into our own hands.
When a decision is looming closer or the pressure is turned up in a situation, it’s tempting to give up on an answer from God and decide on our own. But it’s in these times that we have to resist the temptation to go it alone. If you plaster a wall and paint over it straight away, cracks start to appear. If you’re too impatient to let the plaster dry, the wall is spoilt in the long run. Likewise, if we become impatient with God, if we decide we can do it better on our own, then our lives start to crack. It may be a quick fix solution that we concoct, but it will never be the best.
Often we view waiting as negative, but it’s in the times of waiting that we draw closer to God. Isaiah 40 v 31 reminds us that those who “wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength”.
Waiting isn’t just something we have to endure; it’s a process that allows us to grow into what God wants us to be. Through waiting we learn to trust God, we start to see His faithfulness and rely less on our own strength. If God always gave us answers immediately we wouldn’t be able to develop and grow. Trust isn’t something that can be inherited; trust is something that we learn.
Matthew Henry, a 17th century theologian, summed it up pretty well saying:
“God will work when He pleases, how He pleases, and by what means He pleases. He is not bound to keep our time, but He will perform His word, honour our faith, and reward them that diligently seek Him.”
In my own life I’m learning what this means first hand. I’m not yet sure where God is asking me to go when my gap year is finished. Trusting God with my future, waiting on him, is not an easy thing to do. But I have learnt through this period of waiting that God is a faithful God and ultimately has plans to prosper us to give us a hope for the future.
Is there something in your life that you're waiting for? Maybe it's a decision about your future, a relationship you wish to see restored, a dream that you'd love to see realised. When there seems to be no apparent answer, when we start to feel that God has forgotten us, that's when we need to remember the truth that God always "works for the good of those who love Him" (Romans 8v28).
By persevering, by seeking God's will in all areas of our lives, by asking the Holy Spirit to fill us we are choosing to put our hope in Him. We may not understand the present, but by realising the truth that God never leaves us, by choosing to trust that He can see the bigger picture, we can look with confidence and expectation towards the future. We can be assured that as we wait, God will fulfill His purpose for us in his good and perfect timing.
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