90% of Life is Waiting

90% (or maybe more) of life is spent in between something and something else. We live in between promise and fulfillment, death and resurrection, Jerusalem and Emmaus, the place we are coming from and the place we are going to.

If you think about it, the “high points” of our lives — the births, the marriages, the memorable moments on vacation — happen in between mostly normal stuff. We answer emails, drive to appointments, and wait in line at the grocery store.

Then, for those of us attempting to live a life in partnership with God, who have some sense of “promise” or “call” over our lives, the time between God giving a promise and us stepping into that promise can take a frustratingly long time.

Unless we are honest about how much of our lives is spent in this “in between,” liminal space, we will end up mostly bored, frustrated, or even angry.

The most consistent testimony in Scripture is that the people of God are formed through waiting — the years in the wilderness in between Egypt and the Promised Land, the years spent trying to fully occupy the Promised Land, the years waiting for the Messiah, the agonizing Silent Saturday in between death and resurrection, and the centuries spent waiting for the return of the Lord.

Put simply, if we are to make it in the Lord, we have to have a vision of waiting well!

Many have written much more fully on this topic than I have, but I’d love to offer three postures for anyone who finds themselves “in between” one place and another place this morning.

1. Worship

We worship while we wait.

We don’t worship while we wait because it’s a magic wand that God uses to change our circumstances or because it’s somehow going to speed up the process of what we’re waiting for.

We worship because it’s what we were made for.

Worship reorients us to the reality that we find ourselves in between a garden and a throne room, and that any fulfilled promise or dream is ultimately only a foretaste of the heavenly banquet that we will share with God together.

Worship reorients us to the story in which we live, and shapes us to remember that it’s God who fulfills the deepest longings in our hearts, not the answered prayer.

So while you wait, read a Psalm, go on a worshipful walk, have a feast, or put a worship song on full blast and enjoy the moment with God!

2. Intercede

In waiting seasons, God often brings to mind for me the question the disciples ask Jesus in Luke 11:1: “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

Oftentimes, the agony and pain of waiting is meant to produce a new kind of prayer in us.

When you read the Psalms, you can see clearly how David transforms the pain of every season he is in into a new prayer and a new song.

For many of us, we try to pray the same way that we have always prayed when we are waiting.

What if God is using the delay of a promise to birth a new language of prayer in us, a new language of longing?

Back in November, I did a short series of devotionals on what I’ve learned from the prayer life of the Welsh coal miner Rees Howells. Put simply, one of the major themes in this hero’s life is that prayer is partnership with God.

In a season of waiting, it is appropriate not just to pray blindly, but to ask God — “How can I partner with You in this season?” Are there certain intercessory prayers that you feel a sense of authority or drawn to pray? Beginning to name what we are invited by God to partner with Him in prayer for is a process that often involves community who can pray with us or a trained guide (like a spiritual director) who has traversed seasons of intercession before, but it might be worth asking —

God, is there a new prayer that you are birthing in me in this season? Is there anyone I can pray with to see this promise fulfilled?

3. Pay Attention

Ronald Rolheiser often says that “carrying tension shapes the soul.” This theme is common in much spiritual writing and is amplified in the biblical narrative of the Israelite’s journey through the wilderness — transformation always happens in transition.

Rarely are we transformed simply in the promise or in the Promised Land, rather we become capable of carrying the promise through the process God takes us on to get there.

Waiting and transition are always an invitation to be formed into Christlikeness in a deeper way. Waiting and transition always involve a process of death — letting go of the old — and resurrection — embracing the birth of the new. How might you be invited to death and resurrection in a new way in this season?

Put even more simply, don’t miss how God is forming you in the process of waiting. Don’t check out — pay attention!

What aspect of Christlikeness might God be forming in you in this season of waiting?

If anyone finds themselves in the pain of prolonged, unwanted waiting today — I see you. I’m praying for you! I’d love to leave you with a simple prayer today. If you’d like, you can make this your prayer as you sit with God and take deep breaths, praying in and out.

Pray this today: