I’m not the most patient person in the world, I confess, and I hate to get behind pokey drivers. And I hate to sit through a green light while the driver in front of me is texting or playing PokemonGo or taking a nap. Roughly six months of our life is spent sitting at red lights, and I don’t want to accumulate another month.
Another 37 billion hours a year is spent standing in lines. I recently read online an article on the psychology of waiting entitled “Why Waiting is Torture.” (Alex Stone, www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19). He shared about a customer-service issue that surfaced at a Houston airport several years ago. Passengers were complaining about the long waits at baggage claim, so executives increased the number of baggage handlers. The plan worked: the average wait fell to eight minutes, well within industry standards. However, complaints continued at the same level.
Further study found that it took passengers one minute to walk from their arrival gates to baggage claim and seven minutes to get their bags. Executives altered their approach by moving arrival gates away from the main terminal and routed bags to the outermost carousel. Passengers now had to walk six times further to get their bags and complaints dropped to near zero.
Why? Because occupied time (walking to the baggage claim) felt shorter than unoccupied time (standing at the carousel). Waiting without something to do feels unproductive.
Waiting is sometimes torture in our spiritual lives, also. I can identify with the 19th century New England preacher Phillips Brooks, who was normally poised and calm. However, he did have moments of frustration.
Once, a friend saw him pacing the floor, apparently agitated, and asked, “What’s the trouble, Mr. Brooks?”
“The trouble is that I’m in a hurry, but God isn’t!”
The Psalmist addressed the issue of waiting in multiple passages. For example, in Psalm 37, the writer mentioned waiting three times:
“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him” (Psalm 37:7a).
“.. . those who wait on the Lord shall inherit the earth” (Psalm 37:9b).
“Wait on the Lord and keep His way, and He shall exalt you …” (Psalm 37:34a).
Several Hebrew words are translated wait, but often the word means confident expectation. The emphasis is that our waiting is on the Lord or for the Lord, as many passages have the Lord as the object of our waiting.
Waiting involves seeking the Lord. Lamentations 3:25 reads, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.” To seek Him, we spend time in God’s Word, in fervent prayer, and in meditation reflecting on God’s track record of faithfulness.
Waiting involves resting in God and relying on His timing (Psalm 37:7). Waiting is active, not passive. We do not sit still while we wait, but continue to serve faithfully, while also being careful not to run ahead of God.
Waiting requires trust. Relying on God’s timing gives God the benefit of the doubt that He is at work, is in control and knows what He’s doing. Waiting in trust reminds us that “I am not in charge.” We have to let go and let God.
Henri Nouwen wrote about circus trapeze artists known as the Flying Roudellas. The Roudellas shared with Nouwen that there’s a very special relationship between the flyer (the one who let go) and the catcher (the performer who catches the flyer in mid-air).
As the flyer swings high above the net, there comes that moment in which he must let go. At that moment the performer becomes totally dependent on the catcher. He arcs into the air, then remains as still as possible as the strong hands of the catcher reach out and grab the flying artist.
The flyer must never try to catch the catcher; instead, he must wait in absolute trust for the strong hands of the catcher to grab him. So must we totally rely on God as we wait for Him to do His work in His way on His time table.
As Peter Marshall once prayed, “Teach us, Oh, Lord, the disciplines of patience, for to wait is often harder than to work.”
Dr. David L. Chancey is pastor, McDonough Road Baptist Church, Fayetteville, Georgia. The church is located at 352 McDonough Road, near McCurry Park, and invites you to join them this Sunday for Bible study at 9:45 a.m. and worship at 10:55 a.m. Visit them online at www.mcdonoughroad.org and like their Facebook page.
