Worshipful Waiting
The season of love can be emotionally draining on a particular group of people. A single status can bring freedom and liberty; it can also bring confusion and doubt. All of us spend most of our lives waiting, whether for big things like a job, a spouse, a baby, or healing, or something that feels smaller, like Summer vacation, or for little ones to grow to maturity. Waiting can be useful and challenging, and it is not a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. Often when we have received something big that we've waited for expectantly, we assume happiness will follow, and our desires will be permanently satisfied. Instead, we quickly find ourselves waiting for something else — and sometimes several things at once.
Waiting can take on numerous forms. Some eagerly wait, some wait in silence. Some people procrastinate; others try to brush off the importance of something expected. Some fill the time by doing what they know is right- and that form of waiting can be the most frustrating of all. The waiting that whispers, "God, I've been so good, when is it going to be my turn?" The waiting that almost feels like abandonment is the most faith-testing of all. Our finite timing is so unmatched by God's plan. We want things, affection, and concepts, and we want them sooner rather than later, even if the pieces just do not quite fit together. There is no magic formula to get over the anxious feelings of waiting. Even through the absolute most difficult, gut-wrenching times, the only solution is to worship in the waiting.
Waiting is a standard part of life in a time-obsessed world. Regardless of whether our waiting feels simple or difficult at the moment, how we wait will shape the people we are becoming. Worship is essential to that wait because a Godward perspective helps us to persevere with patience and hope. Endurance, Paul tells us, "produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:4–5).
When, in our worship, we catch a bigger vision of the strong and kind heart of our God, then we are well prepared for the waiting that lies before us as long as we live on this earth. We will not stagnate in our waiting but grow and be blessed by it. Incorporating worship, as we turn our eyes Heavenward, we wait together for The One we long for most: our God who brings salvation (Hebrews 9:28). This is a hope that will not disappoint. When the waiting period is over, we will worship The One who fulfills our expectations beyond what we could imagine.
