Why Wait?

What does "WAITING" mean to you?  When you hear that word, do you think of long lines at the grocery store, Christmas morning,  or a watched-pot of (almost) boiling water?  Waiting means something different to each and every one of us.  Whether we're waiting for a medical lab report or for the alarm that wakes us, the tick-tock of the clock serves one very important purpose:  It reminds us that we are not in control. 

Have you ever prayed a prayer to God and felt like he just ignored you?  The clock's seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, and months ticked by, and that's literally all you heard--the empty sound of a silent God?  It's frustrating to find yourself opening up to God only to find that he doesn't reciprocate your efforts.  

Reading Lamentations tonight, I came across this verse:  He has blocked my way with a high stone wall; he has made my road crooked. (3:9)

If I had stopped there, I might have been tempted to say, "Yeah, you tell 'em, Jeremiah!  Blame it on the big guy!  I feel your pain."  But luckily, I didn't.  I kept on reading, and I'm so glad I did:

Lamentations 3:21-26:  Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this:  The faithful love of the Lord never ends!  His mercies never cease.  Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.  I say to myself, "The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!"  The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him.  So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.

Waiting is hard, to be sure.  When I read through these verses, though, I gained a new perspective on why we wait.  Waiting definitely produces perseverance and character and hope and all those other wonderful qualities that we read about in the New Testament, but beyond that, our trust in God is strengthened.  I like to see progress.  I like change that can be measured.  When I have an idea, I want to see immediate results.  I have a hard time being patient with what God is doing in me.  And unfortunately, he has a whole lot of work to do!  That last verse says that the Lord is good to those who search for them.  Searching takes time.  Searching requires a map.  Searching can be frustrating.

In the early 1970s, a famous professor from Stanford University conducted an experiment with four year old children to test their ability to delay gratification.  Each child was given a marshmallow, then the professor left the room and told the child not to eat the marshmallow.  If they could wait until the professor returned, then the child could have two marshmallows.  You can imagine a little four-year old sitting at the table staring at that lonely marshmallow in front of him.  How tempting to eat it!  How sugary and delicious it looked!  If he ate the marshmallow before the professor returned, then he would not get a second marshmallow.  It's no wonder that the children who were able to delay gratification in the simple marshmallow experiment grew up to be more successful adults.

And so it is as we wait on God.  He's our professor.  We can eat the marshmallow now.  It's tempting.  After all, how do we know that we can trust him to do what he says and bring two marshmallows when he returns?  That's why we wait.  We wait and we see.  God shows up and we see.  We wait and we remember.  God showed up!  All that waiting is time spent building a track record of events that fill the gaps between the tick and the tock, between the "Will he?" and "Why isn't he?" questions that dominate our prayer life.

Like a little child, God sometimes has to say to me:  "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts....And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine."  (Isaiah 55:8).  Those words are hard to swallow.  They're the equivalent of my mom chiding, "Because I said so, that's why!"  But I take comfort in knowing this (Ephesians 3:20):  "....By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. 

Yes, sometimes it seems like God places a stone wall on a crooked path.  But maybe that's because I'm not praying the right prayer.  I'm thankful for a God who knows better than I do what's best for me.  I can trust him because he has shown himself to me in times past.  Waiting is never easy, but when I think about what I can accomplish on my own, and what God can accomplish through me, I'm willing to wait.  Two marshmallows are always better than one.