I have been doing a lot of waiting lately. Our family left behind our suburban Midwest life last year and swapped it out for big-city living in the South. Our day to day life is different in more ways than you can imagine, but one of the biggest differences has been an ever present opportunity to wait.  

Need a Doctor's appointment? Great, we can get you one in 8 months. Do you need to renew your drivers license? No problem, the wait time is only 2 full days! Are you wanting to travel a few miles down the road? Well buckle up, because you are in for a 20 minute commute! I kid you not, after only a few months here, I was losing my mind in terms of having to wait for every little thing. Waiting felt like an injustice!  

At first it drove me crazy. I’d sit there in traffic feeling my body tense as I sat through multiple rotations of a stop and go light waiting for my turn just to get through. A 4 mile drive to Target would easily take 30 minutes, and by the time I arrived, I felt frazzled and impatient only to have to reach around people to fill my cart and smile through gritted teeth at the checkout line that was 15 people deep. I was a hot mess by the time I finally slammed the car door shut behind me only to make the 30 minute trek back home. All this waiting felt like a massive waste of time - a crime to my ever present need to be as productive as possible. 

Over time, however, I found myself slowly beginning to embrace this new lifestyle of waiting. I began to realize that folded into these moments of waiting were moments themselves not to be missed. 

Maybe it was a moment to pause or an opportunity to breathe in deeply, allowing the air to fill my lungs and the tension in my shoulders relax. There were moments to take in the unique people all around me and see them as people who God created and deeply loves. Moments to ask what their story might be. At times, the waiting has allowed me to see a need or simply sit in the uncharted territory of silence. All of this waiting has caused me to look outside of my own world and into the heart of God and others.  

Jesus did a lot of waiting. He waited for His ministry to begin. He waited for crowds to move. He waited as strangers reached out and grabbed the edge of his cloak. He waited and waited and then waited some more. He was aware, patient, and full of love in the moments he found Himself waiting.  

1 Corinthians 13:4 reminds us that “Love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy or boast, it is not arrogant.”  

Love is patient, but are we? Do we feel loved in those moments of waiting no matter how heavy or light the situation might be? Do we take notice of others in our moments of waiting?  If we want to be loving people, perhaps we shouldn’t allow these moments of waiting to be lost on us.

There is no moment that's a waste of time when it comes to His working in and through us, especially in our waiting. Afterall, as believers we are a “waiting” people as we keep an eye out with great anticipation for the day He will return. And so, we wait.  

Isaiah 40:39 “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.