As this has been a year of waiting,
this article below certainly speaks to my heart and brings such hope and perspective...
Day 1 of Advent
Day 16 of Advent
"Waiting
is one of God’s immensely sweeping invitations. To wait expectantly and with
open hands requires a relinquishment of control that gets at the roots of our
motivations, fears and idols. It is where we learn that God isn’t a genie; and
happiness is not a matter of God meeting our expectations. While we wait, we
sense the naked vulnerability of trust. No matter how disciplined, organized
and prayerful we get, we never outgrow God’s invitation to wait. The learning
curve is life long.
You
would think with years to practice we would get the hang of it. But many of us
would rather get our teeth drilled than wait. Advent is the season to keep
learning and practicing this discipline that is challenging for us all. It is
an opportunity to see the good fruit waiting can produce in our lives.
Unearthing What is in Our Hearts
Years
ago when people communicated by snail mail, I was waiting for what only can be
called a “love letter.” Every day I would go into the front hall to pick
through the assortment of bills, cards, advertisements and letters the mail
carrier brought. Did I mention that I did this every day? Day after day? Each
passing day it became harder to wait. My heart did flip flops. My stomach
ached.
One day
as I flipped through the stack of mail, I hit a bonanza. I had seven
letters from dear friends on various parts of the globe! But rather than being
elated, I was increasingly disappointed as I saw each return address. Throwing
the letters on the floor, I knew my expectation was turning the good moment
that had been given to me into a bad moment. But I did it anyway.
Waiting
unearths what is really in our heart. It exposes what happens when our
expectations go unmet. When my husband, Doug, was out of work for a year, when
our house didn’t sell for a year, when we moved to Chicago leaving our sixteen
year old son with a car and credit card to finish his junior year… each second
seemed a life time of waiting. But the waiting did something. It exposed a
control streak a mile wide as well as a begrudging heart. I rue all the good
moments I morphed into bad ones as I clung to my demands of what God ought to
do.
Growing in Discernment
Waiting
is a central, unchangeable, universal fact of life. The homeless are waiting
for somewhere to go. Refugees are waiting to return home. Tracts of humanity
wait for lasting peace or rain or medical resources or disaster relief teams.
Children wait for birthdays. The elderly wait for their savings to run out.
Commuters wait in traffic. Wait. Wait. Wait some more.
Many of
us get so frustrated with waiting that we’d rather make a quick decision and
pick up the pieces later than hang around in limbo and wait for clarity to
come. Doing “something” feels so much better than doing nothing. But waiting is
not doing “nothing.” And doing something is not always better than waiting!
When an
autistic child reacts in a hysterical manner, the most important thing for the
teacher to do is to just stand there, still and waiting. The teacher is not to
do something; she or he is not to step in. It is best for the teacher to wait
and watch for what is really going on. By contemplating the child, the teacher
may become aware of what precipitated the crisis. Rushing in to fix things too
quickly distorts the pattern and perspective in the moment. Acting actually
blurs a teacher’s discernment. Clarity comes through patient waiting in the now.
Waiting Produces Patience
Patience
is a characteristic of God and a fruit of His Spirit. You would think we would
want it as much as we want love, joy, and peace, which are better known fruits
of the Spirit. But I don’t. I resist the particular conditions required to grow
the fruit of patience. It’s embarrassing how often I beg God to “do something”
so I don’t have to wait and let patience grow. As Henri Nouwen writes,
“Impatient people are always expecting the real thing to happen somewhere else
and therefore want to go elsewhere. ”
It is
some comfort that my all too human plea for God to “do something” is found in
the mouths of countless others in Scripture, including those who speak in the
passages from the first week of Advent. Isaiah cries out, “O that you would
tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your
presence—as when fire kindles and brushwood and fire causes water to boil!”
(Isaiah 64:1, 2) And the Psalmist pleads, “Give ear, O Shepherd of
Israel…Stir up your might, and come to save us! Restore us, O God, let your
face shine that we might be saved.” (Psalm 80:1-3)
The Holy
One could vindicate his presence. He could answer us at once and
then we wouldn’t have to wait. So why doesn’t He? Perhaps because the growth
and development of patience in our lives is more important to him than we
realize!
Crucible of Transformation
One of
the main reasons God doesn’t always answer us immediately is that waiting is
God’s crucible of transformation. Waiting is how God gets at the idols of our
heart. Waiting addresses the things we think we need besides God to be content:
money, comfort, expedience, success or control. It creates space to learn more about
who God is, to receive his purposes into our lives, to move past our resistance
and say our deepest yes to him.
The
season of Advent is full of people waiting everywhere. Elizabeth is waiting for
a baby. Zechariah is waiting to speak. Simeon is waiting to see the salvation
of Israel. Anna is waiting on God’s promise. Israel is waiting for God’s
promised prophet to come. Mary is betrothed and waiting to get married.
Then,
after years of waiting, in one breathtaking moment an angel greets Mary, and
says, “Greetings, you are highly favored!” And when Mary hears God’s
plan for her, she responds to God’s invitation with “I am the Lord’s
servant…May your word to me be fulfilled.” Her “yes” brings God to us in
person – in Jesus. All that waiting had a purpose!
In that
moment human ears hear what the human soul has been longing to hear throughout
the ages. God has kept his promise. The woman and her offspring—young and
innocent, without a scrap of worldly power—are here. Through them the forces of
evil in our world will be defeated! They are our guarantee that waiting is
worth the while. God hasn’t forgotten us. He is faithful. The Holy One comes
through. In Jesus all God’s promises are “yes!”
Speak to Your Heart
So, too,
our waiting has a purpose. Every moment of every day is meant to lead us out of
the darkness of self and into the light of LOVE. Waiting makes us look like
Jesus. It can produce purification, character and the listening wisdom that
brings discernment.
Waiting
doesn’t mean you are doing something wrong. It doesn’t mean God hasn’t heard
you. It is not a waste of time. God is at work making you into a person with
the character and integrity you need in order to participate in his dream for
this world. You are in a moment where you can develop a discerning heart,
contemplating evidence of the unseen hand of God and growing in trust.
So speak
to your heart this Advent season. Say as the Psalmist did, “Patiently wait
for God alone, my soul! For he is the one who gives me confidence.” (Ps.
62.5) As we wait expectantly and with open hearts, the Holy Spirit gets at us
and gives us grace—grace to wait and to see when God answers our
prayers, not if.
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