Hurry Up And Wait

Hurry Up And Wait

When I ask cancer survivors what was hardest about the first weeks after diagnosis, many say the waiting was the worst.

“First it was waiting for the mammogram,” recalls my friend Kristie, who, just shy of her fortieth birthday, discovered a breast lump. “Then it was waiting for the results of the mammogram. Then it was waiting for the appointment with the surgeon. Then it was waiting for the results of the biopsy. Then waiting for several other doctors’ appointments for second opinions and consultations.

“All the while every doctor we saw said, ‘This needs to be taken care of as soon as possible,’” recalls Kristie. “The medical world’s perception of ‘soon’ and ours was miles apart!”

My friend Bill recently shared with our support group that his wife, Joan, was really discouraged immediately after her mastectomy as she waited to regain her physical strength and return to her normally energetic routine.

“I told her she just needed to be patient,” recalls Bill, “but she told me, ‘I’ve already been patient for two days—I’m tired of being patient!’”

I am convinced that those of us who are planners (like Kristie, Joan, and me), who like to be prepared and who relish being in charge, make the worst “wait-ers” on the face of the earth. Waiting prevents us from planning, impedes us from being fully prepared, and thwarts our attempts to be in control of the present as well as the future.

I’ve learned I need to be thankful for waiting. I know, I know . . . I’m thinking the same thing as I type these words: You’ve got to be kidding! Why should we ever be thankful for waiting?

Because waiting reminds us that we aren’t God, and that’s an invaluable lesson for all of us. We, of course, would never declare, “I am God.” But every time we get impatient, annoyed, and frustrated with waiting, we demonstrate our need to be in charge. When we wait for others, it puts us at their mercy. They are controlling our schedule, our pace of life, and our agenda. Things are out of our hands.

Let’s be honest: most of us do not want to be at the mercy of someone or something else. But the Bible tells us that we are at God’s mercy for every breath we take.

In him we live and move and exist.

Acts 17:28

And every time we have to wait on God to answer our prayers, it reminds us that we are at His mercy.

Waiting goes against our very nature but draws us closer to the Lord better than just about anything else.

I have some advice for you. It’s the same advice I tell myself when things are taking too long. When you’re waiting, don’t give up—give in . . . to God. Go ahead and put yourself at His mercy. That’s where you already are anyway. You might as well admit it, because when you do, then you can start to experience the transforming power that waiting can have on your character.

Don’t get confused. It’s not that the waiting itself changes us—otherwise we all would be pretty wonderful people. After all, everybody has to wait sometime! But it’s how we respond to the waiting that can be transforming.

I love how author-pastor Rick Warren explains in The Purpose Driven Life that godly characteristics—things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—are developed in our lives when we are put in situations in which we are tempted to respond in exactly the opposite way. “Patience is developed in circumstances in which we’re forced to wait and are tempted to be angry or have a short fuse,” Warren writes.^a

I put this principle into practice one day recently while I braked for yet another red light on my hurried lunch-hour errand trip. I looked straight at the light, smiled, and said out loud to myself, “I am not waiting for a traffic signal. I am being conformed into the image of Jesus!”

The declaration made me laugh out loud. But I’ll tell you, it was a wonderfully freeing moment. I didn’t squirm waiting for the light to change. I wasn’t frustrated that I wasn’t making good time. I just sat there and enjoyed the presence of God, which supernaturally settled over me.

Try it yourself.

I am not waiting for test results; I am learning to depend more on God.

I am not waiting for a doctor to call me back; I am learning to be patient as God is patient with me.

I am not waiting in cancer’s shadow; I am becoming more like Jesus.

Feel better about waiting? Just in case you need a little more encouragement about the positive benefits of waiting, I’ve compiled a list of my favorite verses on the subject in appendix 2 (see below). I hope you’ll memorize a couple of them to encourage yourself the next time something or someone is taking too long! There is no faster way to wait, but there is a better way.

I’d love to pray for patience for both of us today:

Heavenly Father, it’s so hard to wait. Please use these forced delays to transform us to be more like You. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Waiting More (and Despising It Less)

Wait patiently for the LORD.

Be brave and courageous.

Yes, wait patiently for the LORD.

Psalm 27:14

LORD, I wait for you;

you will answer, Lord my God.

Psalm 38:15, NIV

I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits,

and in his word I put my hope.

Psalm 130:5, NIV

Let all that I am wait quietly before God,

for my hope is in him.

Psalm 62:5

As for me, I watch in hope for the LORD,

I wait for God my Savior;

my God will hear me.

Micah 7:7, NIV

The LORD must wait for you to come to him

so he can show you his love and compassion

For the LORD is a faithful God.

Blessed are those who wait for his help.

Isaiah 30:18

Since the world began,

no ear has heard

and no eye has seen a God like you,

who works for those who wait for him!

Isaiah 64:4

We wait in hope for the LORD;

he is our help and our shield.

In him our hearts rejoice,

for we trust in his holy name.

May your unfailing love be with us, LORD,

even as we put our hope in you.

Psalm 33:20-22, NIV