The Lost Art of Waiting

At about 3:40 this morning, my wife and I both woke up to an increasingly warm house. As I'm sure many have either experienced or read, the drought and heat wave in Dallas has been record breaking this summer. As a result, our air conditioner has suffered. This will be the third time we have had to call this summer to get someone out to fix it.The hardest part about getting the AC fixed is waiting for the repair guy to get there. It seems the thing always breaks either on the weekend or at night, so there is hardly ever a quick turn around. Needless to say, our 4 am revelation caused some sleeping problems and after rolling around in my own sweat for an hour, I decided to just give up and get up.Waiting seems to be a recurrent theme in my family's spiritual life. Whether it's waiting on a repair guy or waiting on more significant miracles and changes to help us afford the repair guy, we seem to be constantly stuck in this strange limbo where we know God is in control, that he cares, and that he can help, but he hasn't arrived just yet.Waiting is an art form lost on our culture. We can now stream movies instantly to our TV's, we can look up whatever information we want on our computer or phone, we don't have to go to banks to do banking, and seeing out of town friends and family, thanks to FaceTime, is now only a click away. Not to say that these things are bad, but in the immediate nature of our present culture we often times miss an important spiritual discipline.God wants to make us wait.After getting up at 5 am to an incubating house, having already called the after hours repair hotline to make sure we at least get on the list early, I sat down to catch up on reading through Isaiah. In Isaiah 40:31, the prophet writes, "But they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." Again in Isaiah 64:4, "No eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him." It is out of God's mercy and love for us that he makes us wait.This is seen clearly in one of my favorite movies, Waiting for Guffman. The movie takes place in a small Missouri town and follows the lives of inanely ordinary people who, with the misguided hope that an original play they wrote could be heard by a guy from Broadway, become extraordinary. This group of travel agents, dentists, and Dairy Queen workers become actors and singers and dancers. If you've ever seen this movie, you know that it is meant to be ridiculous and funny. (It is a spoof on the Arthur Miller play, Waiting for Gidot). Despite its satire, there is something beautifully spiritual about what happens and I think it points back to why God makes us wait.When we wait for things, our character grows. When we wait, our strength grows. Ordinary people become extraordinary people when given the expectant hope of something greater. The difference between the movie and the spiritual life is that God actually does show up. The whole joke of the movie is that they do all this work and Guffman never actually makes it to the play. Although it can sometimes seem like God will never show up, he does. He always will.My prayer this morning is that we won't waste the waiting. It might be for a phone call from a doctor, a job offer that won't seem to come, a conversation that can't begin, or something as simple as a repair guy stuck in traffic. Whatever it is that we're waiting on, let it be a time to grow. God makes us wait, but it is out of his mercy and for our good.