our hearts, even in our times of waiting:
11 Teach me Your way, O Lord, And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
12 Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries; For false witnesses have risen against me, And such as breathe out violence.
13 I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.
14 Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!
There is work to be done in our hearts, as God desires to develop Godly character in us. One of those tools, not necessarily a pleasurable one, is waiting. In the passage of time, when we are trusting God for an answer, perhaps finding ourselves in a period where we are waiting for something, maybe anything, to happen, we can abide in the peace that He offers. Sure, we continue to cry out to Him, but it can be our goal to do so without falling into anxiety or discouragement. We are not forsaken, as long as we place our trust in the love of Christ!
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In the book of James, we find a passage that may be familiar to you in the first chapter, which can
provide perspective in our times of waiting:
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
As perhaps you're aware, the Veterans Administration has been under fire for some time now. And, there is one aspect of this controversy that attracted my attention recently. According to the website, Conservative Review, VA Secretary Robert MacDonald compared the wait times at the Veterans Administration to the wait times that guests at Disney’s theme parks experience. The website quotes the Secretary as saying: "When you got to Disney, do they measure the number of hours you wait in line? Or what's important? What's important is, what's your satisfaction with the experience?" This came during a Christian Science Monitor breakfast with reporters.
The piece quotes Independent Journal, who had reached out to a Disney spokesperson, who highlighted how the company works tirelessly to ensure their customers receive the best experience possible, even when they're standing in lines. He is quoted as saying:
“If you wait at the Haunted Mansion there are musical tombstones that will sing to you. There is a flowing honey wall at the Whinny the Poo ride. We designed animated crabs for The Little Mermaid waiting area which will interact with you and play games while you wait.
We take every facet of the guest experience very seriously. If you have to wait, you should have fun while doing it.”The CR article actually posted a screenshot showing that Disney keeps the exact wait times of their attractions and even provides that information to their customers to improve their experience with Disney.
Waiting is a part of life, and not a particularly enjoyable one. So, technology can help us to manage our wait times and help us to schedule our coming and going - our family was quite dependent on those apps measuring time when we visited Disney World last year. When my son and I journeyed to Cincinnati earlier this week, I was able to get on Google Maps and check to see what our estimated arrival time would be, which actually became a bit discouraging when traffic caused that ETA to get later and later as the time for my first interview drew nearer.
Anticipation can lead to angst, though, if we're not careful. And, I think that God wants to have a hand in shaping our response to waiting. I have to admit, impatience is an area where I have to really check myself, and it's not a great witness when I fall into its trap. So an app that can mitigate the wait can be maybe be helpful - or not.
But, in real life situations, real life testing periods or challenges, we don't have a wait time app. We don't know what the outcome will be or when it will occur - but God does, and I would think He wants us to do several things:
Number 1, recognize that His timing does not correspond to our own. He is working out His plan, in His time, not according to our own clock or how we think things should play out. Our willingness to surrender to His time clock and to rely on Him for His desired outcome can be extremely helpful.
Number 2, there are works that God wants to do in our hearts in our periods of waiting. While we may be waiting for a physical result, He is using the opportunity to build patience and peace into our hearts and shaping Godly character.
Finally, we can make it our goal to pursue peace in times of waiting. Anxiety will occur when we don't see the answer; but God wants us to trust that He is at work. We can totally surrender to His will and wisdom.
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