Today those who wait are on my heart.  While I wish I had words of wisdom, an answer to the question of “when?”, all I have is a prayer that I wish to share.

Beloved Lord, 

Thank You so much for not leaving us alone in our waiting.  Thank You for taking a place by our side, for holding our hand, and for giving us Your comforting presence as reassurance that we can trust You while we wait.  

Lord, it is so hard for us to be still, scary even.  When our bodies are still, our minds continue to spin through endless reiterations of what if scenarios.  Each potential outcome compounds with complications and shortens the breaths we take.  

We seek distractions in hope of helping to pass the problems.  We work wearily to shirk the worry.  Still our agitations show through in our pacing, our tapping, our fidgeting, and in our exaggerated reactions. 

Lord, how do we wait in peace and rest in You?  How do we walk when our flesh feels the need to flee?  How do we see with eyes of faith when our sight is strained, obstructed by barriers and blockades?  How do we have hope when we face deferment and destruction?  How do we feel loved when those we are waiting for leave us alone, without words of comfort?

I know the answer is You.  Peace in You.  A restrained pace from You.  Vision from You.  Hope in You.  Love and comfort from You.   

Lord, Your timing is perfect; to You waiting is part of the process of getting it just right.  Why does our flesh war against that with such strain, willing to sacrifice just right for just right now?

Lord, I know that part of my personal problem with waiting comes from what I focus my attention on.  I see others getting what I so badly want.  It’s increasingly difficult not to be jealous and to wonder when is it my time?  Will my time ever come?  I suppose that is why You so lovingly advise us not to covet, to spare us the heartache of comparison. 

You tell us to pray, to persevere, to serve those in need around us without asking us to wait.  You are that faithful parent that says, “here’s something to do while you wait.”  

Then You give us a choice: to attend faithfully to what You have given us to do in the waiting or to decline grumpily while we focus on what we do not have. 

Lord, please help us to be faithful attenders, eager respondents to what You give us while we are waiting.  There’s enough gloom and grumpiness in our world already.  Help us to be able to experience Your rich, lavish, joy while we wait for You to reveal that the time is just right. 

If and when that time comes may we be grateful.  As scary as it is to ask, if that time of “when” never comes may we be just as grateful during the wait because we know that we do not wait alone, but wait with You. 

In the name and power of Jesus, who is perfect in His ability to wait, amen.