Few of us enjoy waiting in line.
We probably like even less the pushing and shoving that happens when lines don’t form.
So does that mean that when we are stuck in a line, we have no choice but to wait?
In far more extreme conditions, Victor Frankl learned something about the options that are available to those who wait. As a survivor of holocaust concentration camps, he writes, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms-to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
Frankl’s insight may help us to see more options than we thought we had when the Bible encourages us to, “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him” (Psalm 37:7)
If we take the wisdom of the Bible seriously, then waiting (as much as we hate it) isn’t just a pointless preliminary in God’s school of the heart. Waiting can be where we make some of the most important decisions we will ever make.
Our feet don’t have to be moving for things to get done.
In God’s waiting room, the Apostle Peter says that something far more valuable than gold has a chance to form. Since we’re all in different “lines,” or different conditions of waiting, for many different reasons, let’s take the moment to remember together why we are really here.
Peter, a man we know as an impulsive, action-oriented, type-A friend of Jesus eventually wrote,
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love.
Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith — the salvation of your souls.” (1Peter 1:3-9).
Which leaves me to wonder… if I choose not to wait… will the result be the equivalent of “pushing and shoving”… and if so, at whose expense?
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