"Zion said, 'The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.' [...] Thus saith the Lord God, [...] 'They shall not be ashamed that wait for me.'" Isaiah 49:14, 23b
There is a terrible and burning restlessness that rises within us whenever we must pass through the "waiting," i.e., a period of our lives when (as far as we can see) nothing is happening. It is during these seasons that God will seem hard and cruel. In the moments of stillness and silence, when all seems eternally "paused," when there is neither a mount of transfiguration nor demon possessed valley, just plain flat lands as far as the eye can see, it is then that doubt comes. Doubt does not come from triumph or trials; it comes in the waiting. No one doubts God while resting on the mountain top or passing through the fire; His presence and hand our clearly obvious. It is when all is still like a cold winter night that we doubt. Caught between what was and what's to come, we find ourselves paralyzed in what is, and we wonder if what's to come is really coming, or if we ever were in God's thoughts at all.
Nothing shakes us like sitting and waiting. The Apostle Peter would have much rather taken an ear off and faced the consequences than sit back and watch the death of the Messiah. He had to wait, however, and so do we. If you cannot trust and cling to God when all is stillness and silence, how then will you cling to Him when what's to come finally does come? You desire that God takes you to the "important" things; are you desiring God in the midst of menial things? You want to spread the gospel like fire; can you wash your brother's feet with water? As Mr. Chambers put it once, "If we do not do the running steadily in the little ways, we shall do nothing in the crisis." How can God take you through the firestorm if you perish at the task of given a cup of cold water to the least of these? You want to mount up like an eagle; can you even walk and not faint?
Never resent the waiting. Never get distracted in wondering when "things" will "happen." Things are always happening, whether you recognize them or not. The waiting is crucial because it is when the storm is away and the waters calm that you can soak before God. Is your time of waiting filled with God-soaking or self-sulking? You will never have the waiting back when it is gone; other times of waiting will come, but that waiting is no more. Once things "happen," once you are in the thick, God help you if you find in the midst of the crisis that you wasted the waiting that He gave you. When God leads you out of the wilderness and into Canaan, it is time for war, and how you handle yourself in battle is directly contingent upon how you handled yourself in the wilderness. While in the tents of the barren wild, were you preparing for Canaan, or were you sulking in self-pity? Were you spending the waiting sharpening your sword, or were you letting it rust? May God help us to center every moment, both the menial and the monumental, on Him.
"When you're waiting
Through the still times,
Don't let the static bring you down;
For all things, great and small,
Menial and monumental,
Move to Empyrean Love.
Dance in that Love,
And live..."
-Jon Vowell
There is a terrible and burning restlessness that rises within us whenever we must pass through the "waiting," i.e., a period of our lives when (as far as we can see) nothing is happening. It is during these seasons that God will seem hard and cruel. In the moments of stillness and silence, when all seems eternally "paused," when there is neither a mount of transfiguration nor demon possessed valley, just plain flat lands as far as the eye can see, it is then that doubt comes. Doubt does not come from triumph or trials; it comes in the waiting. No one doubts God while resting on the mountain top or passing through the fire; His presence and hand our clearly obvious. It is when all is still like a cold winter night that we doubt. Caught between what was and what's to come, we find ourselves paralyzed in what is, and we wonder if what's to come is really coming, or if we ever were in God's thoughts at all.
Nothing shakes us like sitting and waiting. The Apostle Peter would have much rather taken an ear off and faced the consequences than sit back and watch the death of the Messiah. He had to wait, however, and so do we. If you cannot trust and cling to God when all is stillness and silence, how then will you cling to Him when what's to come finally does come? You desire that God takes you to the "important" things; are you desiring God in the midst of menial things? You want to spread the gospel like fire; can you wash your brother's feet with water? As Mr. Chambers put it once, "If we do not do the running steadily in the little ways, we shall do nothing in the crisis." How can God take you through the firestorm if you perish at the task of given a cup of cold water to the least of these? You want to mount up like an eagle; can you even walk and not faint?
Never resent the waiting. Never get distracted in wondering when "things" will "happen." Things are always happening, whether you recognize them or not. The waiting is crucial because it is when the storm is away and the waters calm that you can soak before God. Is your time of waiting filled with God-soaking or self-sulking? You will never have the waiting back when it is gone; other times of waiting will come, but that waiting is no more. Once things "happen," once you are in the thick, God help you if you find in the midst of the crisis that you wasted the waiting that He gave you. When God leads you out of the wilderness and into Canaan, it is time for war, and how you handle yourself in battle is directly contingent upon how you handled yourself in the wilderness. While in the tents of the barren wild, were you preparing for Canaan, or were you sulking in self-pity? Were you spending the waiting sharpening your sword, or were you letting it rust? May God help us to center every moment, both the menial and the monumental, on Him.
"When you're waiting
Through the still times,
Don't let the static bring you down;
For all things, great and small,
Menial and monumental,
Move to Empyrean Love.
Dance in that Love,
And live..."
-Jon Vowell
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