“… but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31
When I was a child, my teenage brother and his pals once took a friend and me to an amusement park. As soon as we entered, my friend and I ran out ahead of my older sibling in the direction of the biggest, brightest ride. Our anticipation was higher than a Ferris Wheel.
“You guys should wait on us,” my brother said.
We didn’t. We immediately set off toward the loudest area of the park on our own. We rode the roller coasters a half dozen times, messed around with some smaller rides, and played carnival games until we were flat broke. By late afternoon, we were bored and exhausted.
We met up with my brother when it was time to go. As he came toward us, I saw a bag of cotton candy in his hand.
“Where did you get that?” I said. I hadn’t seen any cotton candy for sale.
“We got it at a stand by the Meteor,” he said.
“The Meteor?” I said. “What’s that?”
We stood in awe as he described the ride using hand gestures. “Why didn’t you ride it?” he said.
“We never saw it!”
“It’s in the Spaceland section of the park.”
“Spaceland?” I said. He showed it to us on a park map. We hadn’t gone there. We hadn’t even seen it. We had completely missed a quarter of the park. The very thought of Spaceland made my heart race. I wanted my brother to say, “Let’s go there.” I would have soared like an eagle, but I had missed my chance.
If we had waited for my brother when he told us to, our journey would have been everything it should have been instead of the mild disappointment that it was. We would have experienced it all. We would not have grown bored and weary.
I imagine that when God says we should wait for Him, He means something like that. We should not be in a lifelong eagerness to race past Him in the direction of our most colorful ambitions. We should follow closely behind, allowing Him to lead the way, chart our course, and guide us out of our blind circles.
Waiting for the Lord entails seeking Him through prayer. It involves listening as He speaks to our hearts. It means letting Him write our biographies.
It’s ironic that I ran out ahead of my brother that day. Many of my childhood memories involve him speeding forward with little concern for his exasperating little brother as I shout at him to wait for me. Now I sometimes hear God’s voice behind me, shouting the same thing: “Wait up!” That’s when it’s time to be still, wait for the Lord, and pursue Him wherever He leads.
“When I Consider How My Light Is Spent” by John Milton
John Milton (1608-1674) was an accomplished writer when he went blind at 44. This sonnet expresses his fear that the talents God had given him might never bear fruit again. But before He questions God’s caprice in allowing him to lose his sight, the gift of patience emerges, and the poet arises at a surprising resolution.
Whenever I feel that I am in a rut or that my light will go out before I can use it to serve God (I’m still waiting to publish a series of books that I’ve been writing since I was 21), I re-read this poem and reflect on its final line.
Recommended Reading
I think you’ll like my recent column for the Moultrie News on why teaching is an art, not a science. It involves a very special student named Amanda.
Thank you for reading!
May was a whirlwind for me, with school winding down, a new college class to teach, multiple issues for my teacher advocacy group to address, and the premiere of my youth group’s outreach film project. It’s been hard to maintain focus on the most important things. Is that why I chose to write about waiting on the Lord this month? Well, not consciously, but it certainly has helped me. I hope it has helped you, too. Thank you for reading!
Great insights. Too often we don’t wait on God and things are good instead of amazing.