Waiting. It’s an American pastime.
In fact, I think we 21st century Americans are trying to monopolize it.
There are so many fun phrases about waiting.
Waiting for the paint to dry. Waiting for the dust to
settle. Waiting for the right moment. Waiting for the other shoe to drop. Waiting for something to turn up. Waiting on
pins and needles. Waiting
in the wings. An accident waiting to happen. Waiting with bated breath. (That one
caused quite a stir with one of my bilingual friends. They had no idea what I
meant!)
It didn’t used to be that
way, at least from what I have read. Oh, you might have been waiting for the
pot to boil, but there were a thousand other things to do so that you didn’t hear
“a watched pot never boils”.
I remember watching a
documentary about what it was like to homestead in the northern states. The man
helping them prepare for the coming winter gave them this advice. If you have
any spare time at all, chop wood. Done with laundry? Chop wood. Chores
done. Chop wood. Done chopping wood? Chop some more. It seems now that we have
so many modern conveniences, all designed to save time, we now have loads of spare
time on our hands. We don’t have to garden, we stand in line at the local
grocery store while we wait to purchase our goods. We don’t have to wash
clothes down at the local creek, we let the machines do it, while we wait. Because
we like the luxuries of living in the city, we get to wait for the stoplight to
change.
Truthfully, because of our
own lifestyle choices, the waiting game is not going away soon. But there is
something you can do. Find something to do. But please, make it productive. I’m
not advocating numbing your senses with mindless phone app scrolling. I mean
something real, helpful, and fulfilling.
Find something to learn in
those downtime moments. Carry notecards. Bring a good book - a classic or
something aimed at self-improvement. Imagine how the world would change if we
used some of that dreaded “wait time” to memorize or meditate on scripture? For
those more outgoing, what if we used that time to connect with those around us?
Grand children need to hear grandpa and grandma’s stories. There are many who
could use some encouragement. They’re doing fine and headed in the right
direction, they just need a little reassurance on their journey. There are some
who would just love for someone to acknowledge that they exist.
Even though we seem to have
everything we could ever need, there may be times when we find ourselves “waiting
on the Lord” for Him to bring about change, an answer to a prayer, or some provision.
Don’t let these be idle times either. There is always plenty of work to do, and
it also helps to take our mind off of the worrying. So next time you are “stuck
waiting”, look for those “good works” that God has for us to do. You will find
the waiting is transformed into activity and the time will begin to fly by!