While You Wait

I was thinking about the challenges we face with hope in our every day lives, and a song came to me, Tom Petty’s “The Waiting.” God will use anything to speak to us, and if he knows we know a certain song, He’ll use that. Tom Petty is a part of my teen age years, and that song is part of my general consciousness. I looked up the lyrics this morning: “The waiting is the hardest part. Every day you see one  more card. You take it on faith, you take it to the heart, the waiting is the hardest part.” That's so much like God - every day we see one more little step, but we don't see the end until we're there. At the same time that song came to me I thought about another song that I learned in church, “While You Wait.” I used to sing in the choir at the first church I attended after I was born again, and I’m a charismatic evangelical worshipper, meaning that I love to sing praise to God and love to lift my hands and shout in praise. Even now when I am not in the choir, I sing all the time, on my way to work, walking around doing errands, cleaning house. When a song comes into my head, I sing it. I didn’t have to look up “While You Wait” – I know that one by heart. “While you wait, you might have to stand in the rain. While you wait, there may be some heartache and pain. While you’re waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled in your life, remember God’s never late, so just praise Him while you wait.” When we used to sing that song I didn’t really like the message of it – don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful song and an important message, but I am impatient, and I don’t want to wait patiently for God to act in His timing. I want His promises now, especially when they are things that could change my mourning into dancing and my sorrow into joy. The song is telling us to to be joyful and thankful and praise Him even while we are waiting, and that is not easy for me to do. The waiting is the hardest part, and praising while I wait doesn’t feel natural – all I want to do is complain and say, when God when?

A few years ago I left my former church where I was deeply involved in ministry on many levels. I was being paid a stipend for my work and I had another part time job that helped me barely make ends meet. One day the Lord told me I had to leave that ministry and I had no other source of income except for that other part time job. He was very clear that I had to leave, and so I did, stepping out in faith like a good Christian, and trusting that He would provide. Two months later, the part time job I had ended, and I was completely without income. I was already deeply in debt because of my own foolish prodigal daughter life before I was born again, and I had to start using what little was left on my credit cards to keep paying my rent and my bills. I kept saying to God, “This doesn’t look like you,” and He kept answering, “Enjoy your vacation. When you start your next job, you’re going to wish you had enjoyed this time now.” I didn’t listen, and kept worrying and crying and getting more and more stressed out. When I started my next job, six months later, I was so busy and under so much pressure, that I remembered His words and knew He had been right. When we don’t trust God’s promises, the waiting is the hardest part.

I’ve been waiting on some promises and when I ask Him when God when? He replies, “Soon enough. You’re not ready yet anyway. You still have to clean your apartment.” That just doesn’t sound like God to me - it seems too mundane - because I want Him to “rend the heavens and come down” in a flash of lightning and grant my request now! The heartache and pain in the song “While You Wait” doesn’t come from anywhere but inside of me. When I really listen to God, and when I do those simple mundane things like clean my apartment or enjoy my time off, then I’m living in a place of peace and joy and I can praise Him. It’s when I want what I want right now and I start doubting His promises or His intention of coming through with them that I have pain and heartache and the waiting is the hardest part.

A friend wrote to me the other day, “You are doing the hardest part right now, waiting and trusting in God and His will for your life.” I was so thankful for her words because it felt like God speaking to me, letting me know that He knows how hard the waiting can be. I’d like to change the lyrics of that song: “While you wait, you don’t have to stand in the rain. While you wait, you don’t have to feel heartache and pain. While you’re waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled in your life, remember God’s never late so just praise Him while you wait.” We always have choice with God – we can stand in the rain and feel heartache and pain, or we can put up our umbrella and praise Him in joy, knowing that He’s never late, that we can rely on Him and that He always keeps His promises. It’s easier said than done, but it’s something to try that might make that waiting time a time of rest and renewal and not hard at all.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan