Learning to Wait

Learning to wait

I remember when I was running a half marathon in Disney and it was so cold. I remember wanting to get out of the car and get to the starting line. I had some friends tell me let’s just wait because it is so cold. I thought it’s not that bad we have all these clothes on. I talked them to lets go and they said you are going to wish you would have waited and thought please it will be fine. Well let’s just say we got to the starting line and had to wait and I was about to freeze. They looked at me and said are you cold I said no, of course I was not going to say I was cold. About 15 min later we should have waited because I am about to freeze and I will never forget what one of them said. It was you need to listen and learn to wait. As I was running this morning I thought about that and thought why we are in such a hurry all the time?

This verse came to me “I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. Micah 7:7” For most of us, waiting is no easy task! It goes against our nature. Since we live in a day dominated by the fast, the quick, and the instant, waiting annoys and irritates us. The psalmist said, “My times are in your hand” Psalm 31:15, but most of us find out time more convenient when it’s in our own hands or on our wrist! In a society, extraordinarily obsessed with cell phones, watches, calendars, and schedules, waiting is considered an obscene waste of time.

But waiting is not always wasted-especially when you are waiting on the One whom Micah described as “the God of my salvation.” Waiting may sometimes be unpleasant, but it is seldom unprofitable-and a delay is always better than disaster! Rousseau summarized it well when he said, “Patience is bitter, but its fruit are sweet.” St. Augustine added, “Patience is the companion of wisdom.” And the seventeenth writer Gracian said, “Hurry is the weakness of fools.”

Learning to hear God’s voice is one thing that simply cannot be done in a hurry. Many of us have met those special saints who have learned to wait on God. They possess a sweet confidence and a solid assurance of Gods goodness-the sweet aroma of dignity that exudes confidence and assurance. They may be measured in their actions because they know that far more is often accomplished by waiting than by working. Oh, may we learn how to wait on God!