‘Those that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength.’ (Isaiah 40.31)
The globe spins. The days are long or short – except at the equator where they are the same all the year round. Being human is learning to wait. We all have our share of waiting. Time in hospital is spent waiting. We are no longer in control. We have to leave the decisions and action to others. Being caught in a traffic jam may lead to a severe case of automobile captivity A queue may stretch for miles on a motorway. No release seems possible. War is waiting. Ninety per cent of a soldier’s time is waiting. The rest is terror. So I’m told. My own waiting has been little more than watching paint drying. Regardless of its human occupants the globe spins on.
Big men keep little men waiting. This is all part of the compendium of control tricks that convey to others the authority of the big man. The bigger the company, the more customers are afflicted with this kind of trickery.
Young people (often university students) come to terms with waiting. They serve in bars, wait for results lists and interviews. They know that in a few years’ time the tables will be turned and they will see others doing the waiting.
British people may even stake some claim on the invention of waiting. Queues at bus-stops, butchers and grocers became familiar to house-holders and workers inWW2 and have lingered into the experience of subsequent generations.
But we have to wait for the right moment. We have to hear the penny drop. There’s no point in striking while the iron is cold. For the Christian this does not mean going about everything at a dawdle. It does mean being patient while we get up steam or wait for God’s appointed moment. Otherwise it means getting on with the job with determination, fierce determination if you like.
Look up the reference in Isaiah 40 and it will help you through your day. (If you don’t often consult the Old Testament, remember that the book of Isaiah has memorable teaching about the being of God expressed in some of the best poetry in the Bible.)
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