For years I have heard Christian teaching proclaiming the need to utilize our time. “We only have 24 hours in a day… make the most of every hour”…. “Time is the one commodity that cannot be replenished.”
Today I was waiting for the bus. I had nothing else to do, but wait. There is a pressure inside of me that suggests I must redeem the time, I must use it well, I must be productive. But I was stuck there so all I began to think. I thought about “waiting”. I began to contemplate how Scripture depicts waiting as a good thing. And how waiting was used by God to prepare people for some of the most important events.
David was a shepherd boy. As a shepherd, David was in the field day and night doing what? Waiting. He waited for the sheep to graze, he waited for the day to end, he waited to move the flock forward. That could not have felt particularly productive. But the fruit of the waiting was a young man who knew with God he could defeat the giant. Time spent alone had given David time to contemplate God and to trust the One who proclaimed, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
David was anointed by Samuel, the prophet, to be king. But David was left to wait decades before taking over as king. In the years of waiting he married, served in Israel’s army, and spent time in Saul’s household.
Moses was selected to lead Israel out of bondage. He waited. He had to grow up from infancy. As an adult he killed one of the Egyptians beating an Israelite. What was the consequence? He ran away to a different land and though Moses may have thought he was hiding, God was waiting. Finally it was time and God called to Moses through the burning bush. God had a message for Pharaoh he wanted Moses to share.
Moses went to Pharaoh and shared God’s message and then he left to wait. He went back and forth several times and had to wait often. Finally Pharaoh agreed to let the Israelites go. And then he changed his mind… Israel saw God’s hand move mightily… and then they grumbled… Finally the Israelites worshipped homemade idols. God’s answer? The Children of Israel would wander in the wilderness for forty years… they would wait before entering the Promised Land.
Israel distressed God when Moses went on the mountain to be with God and receive the Ten Commandments. God’s punishment was for Israel to wait and wander. But was that really punishment? Or was it perhaps a solution?
When we wait and wait and wait what begins to happen within us?
Looking at the examples above, while we are waiting God is working to mature and grow us giving us the experiences needed to accomplish more.
Often we are aggravated with the slow down and the inconvenience. But over time, we begin to feel our soul quiet. We begin to seek what can be found in the solitude. Perhaps we even begin to listen and hear the still quiet voice of God. And sometimes in the waiting, we let God work, or let our soul heal, or learn truths about ourselves.