Weight in the Wait..
I’ve found the space and weight of the wait can be heavier and seemingly longer than the actual wait; but what do we learn in the wait. So many things. There has to be a reason why our culture is always in a rush. It’s the avoidance of the wait that keeps us running endlessly to people, places, and things that will only yield themselves empty. We then run on to the next thing, but when was the last time you waited and instead of running, sat still?
What does it mean to wait and what is it that we are supposed to be waiting for during the wait?
To wait: stay where one is or delay action until a particular time or until something else happens. We become paranoid if we have to wait too long. Think back to a time when you’ve been on an airplane and takeoff takes longer than usual. We become annoyed and impatient in the wait. We become distracted in the wait. We become less dependent on the wait. We become bored in the wait. Some of us even feel useless during the wait. Our significance is in movement, doing, and accomplishing, running to the next thing, busyness. But what would happen if we chose to wait.
I believe by definition it means to be still and to stay until God shows us the next thing. What if in the weight of the wait, He is building your perseverance. What if in the weight of the wait, He is growing your patience. What if in the weight of the wait, He is pouring His endurance and stamina into your spirit.
What if what we need in the wait, is exactly the character and standing that will help us for the next season He is bringing to us? We are too busy to wait, thus we are too busy to develop. I’ve learned who He is in the meantime. I’ve seen what He can do when I wait and let Him. It is always so much better than anything I could ever think or imagine, but the weight of the wait can be heavy.
It can be lonely. It can be tiresome. It can be overwhelming.
One beautiful aspect of the wait is the stillness. Have you ever noticed God won’t yell at us just to get our attention. I always wondered why. He has the capability to do anything He wants. But maybe it’s that He doesn’t want to force Himself on us. Part of accepting the weight in the wait is leaning into Him in stillness while we wait. The dependence becomes an expression of worship. Sometimes while I am waiting, I just have to worship who I have known Him to be in my past, how I have seen Him work in others lives, and who I believe He will be for my situation in the future. Praise Him in the wait.
He grows our dependence on Him in the wait. We weren’t meant to figure life out alone, that’s why He wants our dependence on Him while He guides us. Our culture suggests we be independent, never relying on anyone but this is simply because we lack trust in what we can see much less trust in something or someone we can’t see. I find that what develops during the wait is far more useful than rushing and hurrying to the next thing because I don’t know how to sit still.
What if the exact place you are in seems unbearable because you won’t take the time to be still HERE. What needs to grow and develop under the weight of the wait? It’s why sometimes we have to learn the same lesson over and over and over. Go around the same mountain over and over and over. When does it stop? When do we consciously surrender rushing through the wait?
I believe the weight of the wait is much more bearable than the weight of trying to do life on my own. Be still. Wait. Get comfortable under the weight of the wait.
Sometimes He will give us more than we can handle just so we have to depend on Him. He reveals Himself to us when we give space and time for Him to work. He reveals Himself in the weight of the wait. Allow yourself the space to grow and develop in Him, and watch how He comes in and does exceedingly more than we could ask or think.
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us”
Ephesians 3:20
