Young woman sitting on concrete bench, waiting
Lightbulb moments

What are you waiting for?

Do you find it hard to wait or do you draw on great reserves of patience?

I’m not very good at waiting. I can go from calm to impatient in a few nanoseconds, especially if I’m stuck in a sea of stationary vehicles and brake lights. Especially if I have to be somewhere, pronto!

Impatient & frustrated

I’m probably not unusual—life in a big city can be very stressful. And yet, even when I’m not in a hurry I hate sitting in traffic as it creeps forward a few millimetres at a time. The first alternative route I see, I take. It might not save me any time at all, but at least I’ll be moving and not getting frustrated.

But sometimes my impatience has gone beyond the trivial.

As a mum with young children I remember waiting impatiently for them to grow out of a particularly irritating stage. It pains me now to recall how I couldn’t wait to move on to the next stage. I was so focused on how I felt that I’m sure I missed some of the fun and joy as my kids grew and developed.

The truth is, I’ve often given in to the frustration of waiting. Desperate for my life circumstances to change, I’ve fretted and fumed, longing for things to get better.

When young, single and unemployed, I worried that my wait for Mr Right and a job would never ever end. I became so restless and discontent that for years I didn’t know any other way to be.

We wait & wait

But the unrelenting reality is this: life is full of waiting. We even have rooms for waiting.

We wait for appointments to begin, classes to commence, travellers to return, numbers to be called, milestones to be reached, planes to land, wounds to heal, paint to dry, babies to be born, young drivers to come home, grass to grow, children to sleep, kettles to boil, suffering to end, races to finish, wedding days to arrive.

Whether trivial or crucial, every kind of waiting in life gets jumbled together. We wait for the kettle to boil so we can give tea and comfort to a friend whose suffering seems to have no end. We wait for a delayed flight so we can pick up that important wedding guest. We wait for paint to dry so we can host a happy milestone celebration. We wait for our weekly counselling appointment so that our broken hearts can mend.

But what makes waiting so difficult? Why do we struggle to wait patiently or even wait at all?

Uncertainty, tedium & the short fuse

Waiting is hard because so often it involves uncertainty and a lack of control. Stuck in a traffic jam, I cannot be sure of getting to my destination on time, and if the car is low on fuel there’s a chance I won’t get there at all.

If you’re unwell, it’s not always clear how long the illness will last or if you’ll ever recover. When we lack certainty or the power to influence a situation, we feel vulnerable, exposed, and that makes waiting hard.

Now, let’s be honest. Waiting can also be very boring. Mind-numbingly so. The numbing thing is what happens to me in heavy traffic or when I run out of reading material after five and a half hours in a waiting room (true story).

It seems we’re hardwired to make progress. Most of us prefer activity rather than sitting around watching the seconds tick by, especially if there’s a dentist’s chair at the end of the waiting.

Sometimes, though, we need to admit that waiting is hard because of us. We can be self-centred or greedy or ungrateful. Sometimes waiting is hard because we just don’t want to wait at all.

We get impatient and grumpy. We might even start blaming other people for our plight or expect them to fix it, now! I know I have, to my shame.

Exceptional wait-ers

Given my natural impatience, it’s somewhat mystifying then that two of my favourite people in the Bible are—unlike me—exceptional wait-ers. Only Luke mentions them and in just 14 verses of his gospel account. As he tells the story of Jesus’ dedication at the temple at eight days old, Luke introduces us to Simeon and Anna.

Simeon praises God as he sees baby Jesus, with Mary
Simeon’s song of praise: by Aert de Gelder, circa 1700-1720 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
He tells us that Simeon had waited years for the consolation of Israel and had been promised by the Holy Spirit that he would see the Lord’s Messiah before he died. And another senior citizen, Anna, prophet and widow, looked forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. She prayed, fasted and worshipped day and night in the temple.

In fact, both Simeon and Anna got old as they waited on God. They aged while they expected him to act, while they depended on him to act.

And because they waited with such patient trust and faithful dedication, Simeon and Anna knew instantly who the infant Jesus really was when he arrived at the temple. They recognised in that tiny baby the One who was the Lord’s Messiah, for whom they had waited for so many years.

Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God for keeping his word:

Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel (Luke 2:29-33).

And Anna came up to Mary, Joseph and Jesus, and gave thanks to God. Then she told everyone else who looked forward to the redemption of Jerusalem about the child she had met, whom she had recognised at first sight (Luke 2:38).

The godly art of waiting

It gives me hope to remember that Simeon and Anna were old. They’d had years to learn the art of waiting.

They’d had years to practice godliness amid the frustration, uncertainty, lack of control and sheer boredom of waiting. They’d had years to repent of any impatience or discontentment or self-centredness.

Simeon was righteous and devout, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. Anna never left the temple as she came before the Lord in prayerful worship. But it’s not only how they waited that mattered—it’s what they waited for that made all the difference.

That’s what made them so distinctive, so exceptional. These old ones longed for God more than anything and looked forward to what he would do.

They gave him their attention while they waited, and by his Spirit he worked in them, giving them eyes to see. Simeon and Anna were transformed by what, or rather who, transfixed them.

Waiting on God

They waited on God to fulfil his promises and trusted that he would keep his age-old word to his people. Their lives were centred around their belief that God would send his long-awaited Messiah to save Israel, to redeem Jerusalem and bring light to the Gentiles.

They knew the fulfilment would bring pain and tumult, but they also knew that God’s plan would prevail. They believed it. They waited for it. They centred their lives around it.

As I reflect on the spiritual fruit that those years of waiting produced in them, it encourages me to keep working at this waiting game, to keep depending on God humbly and repentantly. It encourages me to shift my focus while I wait.

If I’m tempted to give in to anxiety or selfishness, I can look to my heavenly Father and trust in his sovereignty and love. I can wait with eager expectation for the outworking of his plan for the world. If I truly rest in him, it’s less likely that waiting will get the better of me.

Spiritual fruit & hope

I must remember that my heavenly Father is in charge. When I trust in him—not in a change of circumstances—he graciously grows the same spiritual fruit in me that I see in Simeon and Anna. I must remember it’s not only how I wait that matters, but for what and for whom.

And this makes all the difference. It helps me humbly to accept that an answer or change might never come this side of heaven. It helps me to wait, in hope, on God.

The apostle Paul says it so well in this wonderful passage from 2 Corinthians:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Cor 4:16-19).

Featured image: Photo by Prixel Creative | Lightstock.com

2 Comments

  • Jan Smith

    Thank you Lee for this insightful article that I so easily relate to. I feel my life is one long continual wait. I have been waiting and praying for a daughter for years. I’m so thankful to God for my mentor, Joe who also lived his life waiting for his daughter. He never saw that prayer answered, but still he trusted God right up to the end. What I am learning also about waiting is to learn to be content while I wait, and to trust God for the outcome. I too get impatient because I feel the clock is ticking, that I am running out of time. I’m old already; when did that happen? Time goes so fast, but like my mentor, “I’m keeping my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross and sat down at the right hand of God the Father”. So I consider him so that I do not give up, but keep waiting, and trusting.
    Thanks again Lee for allowing me to express my thoughts about waiting .

    • Lee

      Lovely Jan, thank you so much for sharing with us not only your personal experience, but also your deep insight. Like Simeon and Anna, you have been shaped by waiting – especially by your faithfulness in waiting on the Lord. And it shines out from you because of the spiritual gifts he has given you to share with us. xx

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