What Are You Waiting For?
By David Faust
I hate to wait. The problem is, I have to wait.
There are lines at the supermarket, the coffee shop, and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. When I was a boy, my parents made me wait until I was old enough to drive and date. When my wife and I were expecting our babies to be born or adopted, we had to wait several months to hold them in our arms.
On average, Americans spend 32 minutes waiting at a doctor’s office (even when we have an appointment), 28 minutes waiting in an airport security line, and 21 minutes waiting for our significant others to get ready to go out. (Yes, someone really measured that!) Each of us average about 13 hours per year waiting on hold for customer service and 38 hours sitting in traffic. Over the course of our lifetimes, we spend about 6 months waiting in line.
Efficiency experts have developed something called queue theory, the mathematical study of waiting in lines or queues. McDonald’s and other companies analyze staffing decisions, line placement, and customer demands at different times of day in an effort to decrease waiting times and improve customer morale.
WORTH THE WAIT
The Bible has a lot to say about waiting. Here are some examples:
- “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27:14).
- “I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope” (Psalm 130:5).
- “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!” (Isaiah 30:18).
- “But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me” (Micah 7:7).
- “But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Romans 8:25).
At first glance, waiting implies little more than passive, quiet expectation. But the word also refers to being ready for action—prepared to serve or obey. That’s why people who work in restaurants and catering halls are sometimes called “waiters” or “waitresses.” They are standing by, ready for action—ready to serve. Both definitions of waiting appear in Jesus’ parable about the master’s return. The story reminds us to be “like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet” (Luke 12:36). But notice how the master treats his faithful, watchful servants: “he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them” (v. 37, emphasis mine). The master accepts the role of the waiter! What amazing grace—what humble, sacrificial love—Jesus demonstrated when he washed his disciples’ feet! At the Last Supper, the Master became the waiter.
God sometimes asks us not to act, but to wait. We wait for justice to be done. We wait for prayers to be answered. We obey and serve while we wait for Christ to return. We strive to “live holy and godly lives” as we “look forward to the day of God and speed its coming” (2 Peter 3:11-12). When patience is difficult, we recall how long-suffering and merciful God has been to us. And we trust that Heaven’s blessings will be worth the wait.
Personal Challenge: Rate your own level of patience on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 = extremely impatient; 10 = gladly willing to wait). Confess your impatience to the Lord, and ask him to make you more patient and help you view time from an eternal perspective (as God does).
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