Waiting on the Lord

The past few months have been full of waiting on different things, and I can't say that it has really bothered me. We keep getting told that waiting is one of the hardest things to do. Perhaps I am just patient and really have things together? Do you believe me at all? The truth is, I am not patient, and I really do not have things together. When people ask about the waiting time, I usually say that our waiting time has been tempered because we know things are happening. For instance, we waited for a diagnosis. We were told that we could see a diagnosis within 30 minutes of the biopsy on the area around Gage's eye. Then, we were told that the diagnosis would take a week because they needed to do several "stains," which took time. After that week, we still hadn't heard, and in the end, what was supposed to take 30 minutes took a few weeks. And, of course, we understand that Gage's condition is extremely rare, and the diagnosis took time. During those weeks, we didn't understand what was taking so long, but we did know that some of the best in the world were working on it, and it was only a matter of time.

I have been reading some stories about those who have been diagnosed with ECD -- for many, the diagnosis came after years. In some cases, by the time the individual had been diagnosed, the disease had spread into multiple systems of the body (which complicates things), and in other cases, it was too late. In our case, we were referred to several doctors, but Gage's case continued to be moved in the right direction. After being referred to The Mayo Clinic, we were amazed that the right doctor had seen Gage's file (at 4 AM) in just a few days and wanted to see him the same day.

Of course, we are not waiting on a diagnosis at this point, but we are still waiting. We are waiting to start treatment. We understand why the doctor wants to wait for some insurance issues to be resolved. We know that these things take time, but still, we are eager to start the next phase of this journey. We trust our doctor, and we understand the reason for waiting.

When the insurance issues are resolved, will that end the waiting? No. When we start treatment, we will wait to see if it works for Gage. We will wait to see how his body responds to this type of targeted therapy. There will always be another test or scan, so we will continue to wait.

Over the past few months, I have seen that waiting is not necessarily negative. Is waiting difficult? Of course, it is. Gage's case is unique, but we are all waiting for something. It might not be a cancer diagnosis - it might not be for insurance and treatment. But it may be waiting to hear back from a job interview or for a spouse to return from a business trip. Waiting isn't negative, but it is an opportunity. Like most of life's circumstances, how we view them changes how we navigate them. I think of how Romans 5 begins; read it for yourself: "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance 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." I have a lot to say about these verses. For instance, it is because of these verses (and some others) that I chose to call my blog "The Truth About Hope." We use the word 'hope' in a lot of ways, but here, the truth is that the hope that does not put us to shame stems from God using suffering in our lives to produce character. For now, what I want us to take note of in these verses is that trial and suffering are a tool - and just as we "rejoice in the hope of the glory of God," we also rejoice in our sufferings because we know certain things - we know that God is at work in the midst of every life situation. That bit of truth changes how we approach life's circumstances. In this case, I have been thinking about waiting - is waiting an opportunity to rejoice? It must be.

It isn't very far into the Scriptures, and we find a reference to waiting for the Lord's salvation (Genesis 49:18). In Exodus 24, the Lord tells Moses to go up on the mountain and wait there (Exodus 24:12), and the Lord would give him tablets of stone. As Moses goes, he tells the elders to wait - there was a lot of waiting going on before Moses received the Ten Commandments. How long did Moses wait? Well, he was up on that mountain for six days; it was the seventh that the Lord called to him, and then in verse 18, we read, "Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights." What went on all of that time? Well, we know that there was a lot of instruction - about the Arc of the Covenant, the Tabernacle, and the priesthood, to name a few. But still, forty days seems like a lot. The people must have thought so because, in chapter 32, they got tired of waiting for Moses (Exodus 32:1) and made a golden calf.

There is an interesting moment in Numbers 9 where the people come to Moses and ask why they are kept from bringing the Lord's offering at the appointed time. Moses tells them that they are to, you guessed it, wait. Moses instructed the people to wait so that Moses could hear from God on the matter. Isn't it true we tend to want to act - we want to do something even if we might not know for sure if it is right? Doing something is better than nothing, we think.

Then we get to the Psalms. Psalm 27 is not very long; it is only 14 verses long but packed with so much. The Psalmist begins by affirming, "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" He speaks of armies encamping against him, his heart not fearing, and his confidence constant because the Lord will hide him in his shelter on the day of trouble and lift him high upon a rock. It is a beautiful picture of not only how the Lord cares for His own but also how the Psalmist knows his God and trusts him amid life's difficulties. In verse 11, the Psalmist pleads for the LORD to teach and guide him so that he will not fall to his enemies because he is surrounded by false witnesses who want to harm him. Indeed, the Psalm comes to us in the midst of life's circumstances; the armies that surrounded David were not proverbial armies that represented hardships. The hardships in his case were literal people who wished to kill him. In the midst of the trial, his conclusion is this: "Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!" The Psalmist doesn't say how long he was running for his life, but we do know that there are certain things that the Psalmist knew to be true of his God, and in the middle of dire circumstances, he believed that he would see the goodness and salvation of the LORD (Psalm 27:13), but he hadn't seen it yet. He was waiting, and the conclusion he came to at the moment was that the Lord would bring his salvation in his time, and David was waiting for the LORD. The entire Psalm is a prayer for the Lord to help him. He prays and waits on the LORD.

So what did David do as he waited? Let me ask that question differently because we don't know the answer to that for sure. The Bible clearly tells us to wait on the Lord. Like Proverbs 20:22, "Do not say, 'I will repay evil'; wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you." This is great wisdom, but how does one wait? Isaiah 8:17 says, "I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him." Waiting is difficult - the people in Isaiah's time were tired of waiting on the Lord and turned to mediums and necromancers who chirp and mudder (Isaiah 8:19). This brings up the fact that waiting on the Lord means that, even though the Lord may be working, we do not see it at the moment. It is as if the Lord has hidden his face. Like Isaiah, we must ask to whom we are going to inquire in these times - will we inquire of the dead on behalf of the living, or will we come to the living God who acts on behalf of the living? We may not turn to necromancers or visit Mrs. Cleo, but we we have a propensity to turn to other things when God hides his face.

Listen to the great perspective of Jeremiah in the book of Lamentations as he weeps over the fall of Jerusalem. He says, "The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 'The LORD is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in him.' The LORD is good to those who wait for him, the soul who seeks him." When I say listen to the perspective of Jeremiah, I am referring to his words in the midst of the context of the book. The Book of Lamentations is composed of five poems that express grief over the fall of Jerusalem. It is akin to a eulogy at a funeral, but in this case, what is being mourned is the loss of a nation. These verses in chapter three tell the reader that there is hope in the LORD amid all of this. Once again, there is a reference to waiting for the LORD, but something here really helps us answer the question, "How are we to wait on the Lord?" In verse 25, we read, "The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him." I take this to mean that seeking the Lord is what one does as one waits, so the question becomes, how does one seek the Lord as one waits for Him?

Let me offer some ideas concerning what it means to wait on the Lord. The first thing that we must point out is the overarching theme in all of these texts about waiting on the Lord. What undergirds waiting on the Lord is an unwavering trust in God. Trusting in God is the foundation of waiting on the LORD. The doctrine of God's sovereignty is essential to the Christian life because there are times and circumstances (as we have pointed out) when we will wait on the Lord. In these moments, we need to be confident that God is not only in control of all things but that he always has the best interests of His children in mind (Luke 11:11). The foundation of waiting in the Lord is an unwavering trust in God. His love for us is steadfast, His mercies never come to an end, and he is always faithful (Lamentations 3:22-24). We know that the Lord is all-powerful, is in control of all things, and that God cares for His children. We might not understand and have no clue what He is doing, but we wait on Him, and the foundation of our waiting is trust.

How do we wait? We seek the Lord. We seek the Lord through Prayer and the provision of His word. We learn this from the Psalmist; in the 27th Psalm, David prays for wisdom, direction, and protection in the midst of waiting on the LORD. How is trust in the Lord displayed in the life of the one waiting on the LORD? Through prayer. The Psalmist comes to the one he trusts with his life and the lives of those he cares about. Peter's trust in Jesus was exemplified in John 6, where droves of people were leaving Jesus, and Jesus turned to the disciples and asked if they would also leave. Peter answered, "Where else would we go? You have the words of eternal life." As Peter did, we realize that the Lord is trustworthy; therefore, we come to him in times of waiting and difficulty. We go to him as children come to their loving Father for help and guidance in times of need.

The Bible is an essential resource for those waiting on the Lord. It is how those in waiting to hear from the Lord come to see the object of their trust as evermore trustworthy. The more we learn of the character of God, the more we trust him. It doesn't work in reverse. The more we learn of the character of God, the more He will give us hope as we continue to seek and trust the One whose love for us was demonstrated in the person and work of Jesus. If God is for us, then who can be against us?

Is waiting on the Lord a trial? It is, but it is also an opportunity to rest in who the Lord is and to trust him as we actively seek Him. Can we rejoice in times of waiting? I would say that we should because all suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. A hope that does not put us to shame because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.