WAITING

[1]

 

Waiting is not a character strength that comes naturally to me. It is, however, a discipline the Lord hardwired into my life early on, and for very good reasons.

 

In the month of August, at the end of a summer long separation while traveling with the King’s Ambassadors quartet, Dixie accepted my proposal of marriage. We were ecstatic! But we faced an immediate challenge. We either had to marry immediately or wait until the following June. The student policy at the Bible college I attended was clear; no marriages among students would be acceptable during the academic year. Any deviation to this rule would result in expulsion. Marrying immediately was not our plan. At least not at first.

 

However, as time went by, the days until June began feeling like weeks, and the weeks like months. I was carrying a full academic load, working full time, and still traveling with the King’s Ambassadors, who by this time were being featured every Sunday night as part of the live ABC radio network Revivaltime broadcast. Dixie was working full time to support her mother and herself. We were two very busy young people.

 

Circumstances further intensified during our sixteen month courtship, resulting from our actual being together a combined total of about six weeks. A day here, two there, the summer of our engagement an entire week of days. Two young people in love. Separated by obligations, responsibilities, and two hundred miles of countryside. A “train wreck” waiting to happen? Perhaps. So what kept our relationship alive and growing? A decision to commit to one another with servant love, and a patient longing for one another wrapped day after day in 512 handwritten love letters!

 

Waiting is never easy. It’s never anyone’s spiritual gift; it is a discipline driven by character and trust, renewed by hope and promise.

 

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;

    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

    they shall walk and not faint.^[2]

 

The list of those who waited faithfully is long in Scripture. People we recognize as heroes of faith like Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob, Moses, Joseph, Mary, Paul, John to name a few standouts. And there were others. Waiting was a hallmark of their victorious lives.

 

From the very beginning, for Dixie and me, on a personal and practical level, waiting etched its way into our lives. It served us well on many consequent occasions.

 

Are you anxious about something? Anything? Waiting is a discipline driven by character and trust, renewed by hope and promise.

 

Pick a favorite Old or New Testament character who “waited” faithfully for God to work on their behalf. The next time you find yourself impatiently waiting in line at the grocery store, on the freeway heading home, in a hospital delivery room, or any one of a dozen other moments in life, draw upon your exemplary Bible character. Whisper to yourself the words of Isaiah 40:31, smile, breathe in deeply, and be renewed by hope and promise.

 

The Lord always sees what you want, and always knows what you need.

 

^[1] Psalm 130:5

^[2] Isaiah 40:31