[A favourite from the archives]

If someone were to ask me, ‘What’s the hardest thing about being a Christian?’ I’d say without waiting:

‘Waiting.’

No matter what our life’s circumstances, God makes us wait.

His chief concerns are His glory, His Kingdom, and transforming us into His likeness, so I have to believe that waiting contributes to all that. It renders in us a kind of transformation that nothing else does.

So we wait for Him. We wait for others. We wait for dreams to come true and desires to be fulfilled. We wait for clarity and resolution, help and healing. We wait for eternity.

Now and then God surprises us with a swift orchestration of events and we go, ‘Whoa! God’s really moving!’ But mostly, He works unhurriedly – because we’re quick to forget and slow to trust. Or because He’s fashioning unseen, background plans, or crafting in us the beauty of patient surrender.

When Ruth’s future – and unbeknown to her, the Messianic genealogy and the hope of all the world – hung in the balance, her mom-in-law calmed her:

Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out… (Ruth 3:18)

The Christmas lights are already strung up in the malls. We wait to celebrate how Jesus broke darkness with dazzling radiance. Let’s wait well – appreciating that all of life’s burning questions have actual answers, and God knows them all.

So –

If you’re an already-stretched working mom clocking hours for the final stretch of the year and then some;

If you’re a tightly-wound wife frazzled and hassled and unavailable for closeness and conversation because you’re blinded by busyness or deep, un-dealt-with insecurities;

If you’re fraught with financial complicated-ness of your own or another’s doing;

If you’re tired of being alone or you’re incapacitated by grief or fear or failure;

If you’re desperate to know how the story ends:

Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out…

Yet I am confident I will see the LORD’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living. Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD.

Psalm 27:13-14

. . .

Have a fab weekend!

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