When You Are Waiting

Waiting is something we all have in common. We wait for small things, like the stoplight to change, or big things, like medical test results. We wait for milestones like a child's first steps, graduation, or marriage. We wait for a provision or a resolution. We wait for answers or clarity. We wait, sometimes knowing the answers we receive may change everything.

It’s not easy to wait. One writer shared, “Waiting is essentially a matter of being — stopping, sitting, listening, looking, breathing, wondering, praying.” She says, “It can feel pretty helpless to wait.”*

Sometimes, we know we are waiting. It can feel heavy. It can feel unwanted. When you are in the middle of this waiting, you want it to be over. But, even when we don't know we are waiting, we often are. There is a longing within us, a waiting for wholeness. There is a waiting, a restlessness in our souls that is longing for something more, for God.

Faith itself is a way of waiting. You don't fully see, hear, or understand, yet you believe. "To have faith is to remember and wait, and to wait in hope is to have what we hope for already begin to come true in us through our hoping," says writer Frederick Buechner.

So how can we wait in hope? I think it involves at least two things. We can anticipate and remember. Think about the changing of the seasons. As we wait for the seasons to change, we anticipate an expected outcome. We wait for the sun to linger longer, anticipating spring. We also remember. Our past experiences have taught us that winter will end, the days will lengthen, the temperatures will rise, and the trees will once again be green.

We can carry that same sense of hope with us as we wait for other things. There are some outcomes we can anticipate as we wait. The same One who tells the sun to shine will be there with us — no matter what the outcome is. The same One who brings the rain will provide for us, no matter how things turn out. The same One who overcame death can sustain our life as we wait.

We can wait with hope and confidence, remembering that God will be with us. Like a watchman waiting for the morning, we can be expectant. We can anticipate the dawn. We can remember we are not alone. We can wait with hope.

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*Barbara Brown Taylor, Gospel Medicine