Worship Through Waiting

As I was sitting in the airport yesterday morning, I couldn't help but think about fact that all I was really doing was waiting: waiting to check bags, waiting to go through security, waiting at my gate, waiting to get to my seat, waiting for the plane to take off, waiting for the plane to land, waiting-- well, you get the idea -- I had a scheduled 7 hour waiting process ahead for me. So as I sat at Gate D21, it couldn't have been more fitting to find that this week's study in Satisfy My Thirsty Soul by Linda Dillow was about how waiting is essential in worshiping God. I was actually so taken with it that I didn't even continue on to the study portion but read the chapter over and over again.

What I love most about the topic of waiting is that we are all waiting for something. Whether it's a "real" job, to get married, to have children, for someone to change, to figure out where/when we will move and build a new life, to make more money, or for emotional/spiritual/physical healing -- we are ALL waiting! I think the biggest question for me is am I just waiting to find out what God wants for my life or am I waiting to find the living God in my life? I don't know how, but I daily miss knowing God in an attempt to find out what His plan will be. I actually haven't finished this week's study, so I may have more to post later, but this poem stood out to me powerfully.

Wait
by Russell Kelfer

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate . . .
And the Master so gently said, "Wait."

"Wait? you say wait?" my indignant reply.
"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and I'm claiming your Word.

"My future and all to which I relate
Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to wait?
I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign,
Or even a 'no' to which I can resign.

"You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe,
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord I've been asking, and this is my cry:
I'm weary of asking! I need a reply."

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate,
As my Master replied again, "Wait."
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,
And grumbled to God, "So, I'm waiting for what?"

He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes wept with mine . . .
and He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.

"I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.
You'd have what you want, but you wouldn't know Me.
You'd not know the depth of my love for each saint.
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint.

"You'd not learn to see through clouds of despair;
You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there.
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me
When darkness and silence are all you can see.

"You'd never experience the fullness of love
When the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.
You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

"The glow of my comfort late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight.
The depth that's beyond getting just what you ask
From an infinite God who makes what you have last.

"You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.
Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,
But, oh, the loss, if you missed what I'm doing in you.

"So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to truly know me.
And though oft My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still . . . Wait."