Reason #84

I hate waiting. Truthfully, I am probably one of the most impatient people who has ever lived. Now, now, now! The Lord is really been teaching me to wait, and it’s been a tough lesson to learn. As I’ve shared with you in some of my previous blog posts, my employer is going to be switching hands before the end of the year. What does that mean for me? Well, I don’t know. I have to wait and see. I might get to keep my job, I might have a different job within the bank, or I might not have a job. I won’t know for a few more months, so I have to wait. In the dark, waiting. And this isn’t the only thing I have to wait on. Waiting does not come easy for me. Waiting, trusting, and not knowing what’s to come is hard.

Today is Good Friday, the day when the waiting started. Thousands of years ago, Jesus hung on a cross and He waited. For hours, he waited. In excruciating pain, he waited. And the crowd watched and waited. His mother stood at the cross, watching, waiting. Darkness fell and he cried out to the Father, “Why have you forsaken me?”  But he kept waiting, in the darkness. And then finally He commended his spirit into the hands of his Father. The veil was split and this part of the wait was over.

And then came more waiting. His body was laid in a dark tomb and everyone waited. Trusting and hoping. This was the Messiah. The one sent to save His people. This isn’t how they thought it would go. So now what? But they remembered He said He would rise after three days, so they waited. And I can only imagine Saturday, the day of the unknown, the day of hoping and waiting, was painfully hard to get through. A day where faith was challenged and fear might have crept in. But sometimes all you can do is wait. Fortunately, we have the joy of knowing what happened on Sunday. We don’t have to wait to find out if the prophecies came true. We know they did! But they didn’t know. The disciples, his mother, his followers, they had to wait. And Jesus, laying the dark, had to wait. Wait until the time was right. Wait until the Father was ready.

And this is where I find myself right now. Waiting. Sometimes in the dark, sometimes just sitting and watching in anticipation. But either way, I’m waiting. I would like to know what’s going to happen. I would like to know when my Sunday will come and the waiting will be over. But I don’t know, so I wait. And during my waiting, my faith is challenged. It is stretched and it grows. My roots dig down deeper, but they only do that with time. So I have to wait, wait until the time is right. Wait until He’s ready to move me.  But in the waiting, He’s working. His plan is unfolding. He’s preparing.

And on Sunday, that time of waiting ended when Jesus, in all His glory, walked out of that tomb full of breath and life. A sigh of relief. Shouts of joy. Tears of thanksgiving.

It was worth the wait…

#84 – Because He is working in my waiting.

“Wait patiently before the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.” -Psalm 27:14