Waiting

For those of us who grieve, there is a lot of time just spent waiting. We wait for the present day to end, seeking relief in sleep. We wait for the crying and despair to give way to calm and peace once again. We wait for those “first” important events to be over: the birthday of our loved one, the anniversary of her death, the holiday season. We wait to see actual progress in our journey of grief, but it is too slow in coming. How will we ever survive the next twenty years (or more?) of our lives before we are reunited with our loved ones in Heaven? God’s Word tells us how to survive these painfully long periods of waiting:

“Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:14)

Oh, if only it were that simple! Our tendency is to feel just the opposite: we are certainly not strong, and our hearts are so broken that courage is not even on the radar screen. We are overcome with fear and weakness.

But this verse is not just a suggestion, it’s a command. God is instructing us in the way we should wait upon Him. In fact, the “Wait for the Lord” phrases serve as the bookends to the “be strong and courageous” component of the verse. Why is waiting, with strength and courage, so important?

Paul Tripp helps us in our understanding of this concept in his book: A Shelter in the Time of Storm - Meditations on God and Trouble.

“For the child of God, waiting isn’t simply about what the child will receive at the end of his wait. No, waiting is much more purposeful, efficient, and practical. Waiting is fundamentally about what we will become as we wait. God is using the wait to do in and through me exactly what he has promised. Through the wait he is changing me. By means of the wait he is altering the fabric of my thoughts and desires. Through the wait he is causing me to see and experience new things about him and his kingdom. And all this sharpens me, enabling me to be a more useful tool in His redemptive hands.”

Not a single one of us would ever have volunteered to undergo grief and loss in order to be a useful tool in God’s hands. Almost everyone living in this fallen world will, at some point, have to deal with the sorrow that accompanies the death of a loved one. But given that reality, isn’t it merciful of God to bring some good out of something really awful? Doesn’t it help to know that we will be changed through this experience into more caring and compassionate people? Won’t our eyes see the misery of others more clearly as a result of our own pain?

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head. (William Cowper)

So take the words of Psalm 27 as God’s good command to you, a mercy in the midst of a cloud that you did not ask for: “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord.”

He is worth waiting for.