The Joy of It: That God Waits for Us

Where there is faith, there is always expectancy.

In expectancy, one has the joy of waiting.

At Augustana College, I had a Philosophy professor who often said: 'The worst thing, the most offensive thing you can do to a person is to make them wait.'  Thus, being late to work, class, an appointment, etc. is, he believes, a crime against humanity (I think he phrased it that way, too).

And so it seems, because when you make another person wait, are you not sending the message that they are unimportant...that they are not worth your time, or that your time is much more valuable than theirs?  Are you not making it clear that you are too busy?  And isn't it true that it is always the one with power and authority that requires the powerless (relatively speaking) to wait?  We wait at the doctors office; the doctor is the one with the authority.  Waiters and waitresses wait on patrons; the ones with the power are the ones being served.  And some look upon a waiter's job just that way--as somehow a lesser career.

Yet, God commands us to wait.  (Psalm 27:13-14)

Our response is often: "Why, O God?!?" (Psalm 22:1) and "How long?!?" (Psalm 13:1-2)  Even when it is God for whom we wait, it is as though it were with great suffering.  And we are offended, even when it is God that makes us wait.  In faith we expect salvation, which is abundant life (here, now!) and eternal life.  Yet, life sometimes brings us adversity.

Faith is a journey--not a process, but a progress.  We travel along the Way (Jesus Christ).  But as we walk the paths our Savior has trod, we begin to meet hardship.  [Soren Kierkegaard once made the distinction: the road is not hard, but hardship is the road.  In other words, following Christ is not tricky, but it is choosing hardship instead of comfort, choosing to take up our cross and follow (Mark 8:34-37).  It is easy to follow someone, but following someone into hardship!]  When we meet hardship--suffering--sometimes it becomes too much for us, and so our journey slows.  Now and again, we must stop walking altogether, on account of the pain.  And as we stand at the side of the road we call to God for help and we wait.  Sometimes it feels like God is a long time coming.

And the one who endures hardship in this way takes offense at God, thinking either that God has given a curse instead of a blessing, or thinking that God is altogether too slow to bring goodness and mercy.
And so, we think to ourselves, what a horrible thing God does, to make us wait.

Oh, but how backwards our point of view!

Now, it is easy for us to think that we wait for God to come.  After all, it is the weak that are forced to wait...and it is the powerful that make them wait.  And in our piety, we say, 'None is more powerful than God!'  And so we plead for God to make our waiting end, for salvation to come.

But such piety is backward!  Such piety throws God way off in the distance, it creates a picture in the mind of a God who is alien and remote.  Such piety forgets that God has come near--that even now God is near to you--in your very midst.  In our impatience for salvation, we forget Jesus Christ.

If it is we who are traveling--following Jesus Christ along the road, the Way--then we are not waiting.  Oh, even if our progress is slow, we are moving!  Even if we stop for fear of traveling at night, we will still awake again the next day to continue our travels.  You see, even if we are impatient on our journey, we are still progressing.  We are not just waiting, we are building toward.

Meanwhile, it is God who waits for us to arrive.

Our Father waits for our return.  Just as in the story of the prodigal son, the father waited for his wayward son to return in worry and in hope (Luke 15:11-32), God stands along and at the end of the road of faith that we journey.  God waits for us to return to him.

When one looks at it this way, one sees the same theme throughout all of scriptures.  The prophets spoke, and God waited for the people to understand.  God sent his Son as a more direct communication, and waited for people to realize who was in their midst.  God poured out forgiveness on the cross, and waits for people to realize that guilt is already conquered.  God raised Jesus from the tomb, and God waits for all of us to see the powerlessness of death.  It is God who is waiting for us.  But we, seemingly, love to make God wait.

But God waits with the most perfect and blessed patience.
The Joy of It: God waits for us.