Waiting

I am always making the comment to Brett "I spend half my life waiting on you".  Of course I don't, but think about how much time we do spend waiting.

We wait on some things that are small.  Like waiting for a stop light to change, or waiting on a train to pass, or waiting our turn in line.

I spent some time last week with my Uncle at Barnes hospital, he had a couple of appointments there.
Even though they were on time with their appointments we had wait time in between.

We wait for fun things.  I am waiting for vacation to get here in two weeks.  My friends Tyler and Abby are half way through waiting for baby Emma to arrive.  We wait for Christmas and birthdays.

Some things are not so fun to wait for, my niece Kyleigh recently spent 7 hours in an airport, with two toddlers, waiting for a delayed flight that was finally cancelled.  She is super Momma.

We wait for difficult things.  I know several people recently who have waited for test results to determine cancer or not.  Have you ever sat by the bedside of someone you love waiting for them to take their last breathe?  Those are the hard waits.

Right now in my life I am waiting for my house to sell, I am waiting for a grandbaby, waits that are out of my control.  Situations where I can do nothing to hurry up the wait process.

But we are in good company when it comes to waiting.  Look how long Abraham and Sara waited for a child, look how long Joseph waited in prison, Noah waited on the rain and spent the time building the ark, Daniel waited over night in the lion's den, David waited to be king, Simeon waited to see the savior.  Waiting isn't something new.

I know in my own life God uses waiting to refine me.  I am trying to be thankful for that refining.  Like when I have to wait for a train and I am running late.  I try to remember to thank God for whatever he may be protecting me from.  Because haven't we all had those times when something holds us up only to find out there was a accident just ahead of us.  Without that wait we might have been in it.

When I have to wait in line I am tying to practicing giving grace to that poor soul working.  It usually isn't their fault.  I have the choice to make their day worse or maybe just a little better with an encouraging word and a smile.

And those big life waiting moments.  I am trying to remember that God's timing is so much better than mine, that His plans and purposes so outweigh mine.  I have to believe God knew waiting was going to be a refining tool because he gives us so many verses in the bible that speak about waiting. Here is just a sampling.
Hosea 12:6 "wait for your God continually"
Psalm 27:14 "wait for the Lord"
Psalm 37:7 "wait patiently for him"
Psalm 25:5 "for you I wait all day"
Galatians 5:5 "waiting for the hope of righteousness"
Micah 7:7 "I will wait for the God of my salvation"

God knew we would be waiting but he left us instructions on how to overcome the wait.