As we prepared to celebrate Madeline’s seventh birthday last week end, I had the honored privilege of being asked to prepare the main course of the meal—smoked chicken.  That was an easy assignment that would not be a lot of trouble (the bigger trouble is cleaning the smoker afterwards!).

I tried to get the cooking finished in plenty of time, but I still ran a few minutes late, so to let them know how long it would be before we arrived I asked Gale to contact Kristie to inform her of our delay.  She also told her that they could go ahead and start the meal and we would be on a little later.  It didn’t take long for Kristie to return a text to say they would just wait since we had the chicken!

It was worth waiting for because we had the good stuff!  All the other dishes were good, but the meal was incomplete without the main dish.  We arrived about fifteen minutes late with the results of my labor and we all had a great time together.  And just as she had hoped, Madeline got a few toys and a lot of money—at least it was a lot in her seven year old eyes.

Waiting is not something we like to do in our fast moving world, but I expect we would all be better off if we slowed down some, took time to be still, and benefited more from the good things we so often miss because of our accelerated pace of life.

Sometimes we use the phrase “Hurry up and wait” and I know no other place where that is more applicable than in hospital surgical wards.  I got a fresh reminder of that recently as I visited while a young lady was having surgery.  They took her back in a timely manner; after almost three hours of waiting the phone call came to give us an update.  I thought things were moving along just fine and that the surgery was done, but it was a different message.  They called to say that they had her prepared for the surgery to begin.  Hurry up and wait!  I do not know what was going on during those three hours when it seemed that nothing was happening, but chances are it was something to help insure that the surgery was safe and successful.  And the good news is that the procedure went well and she is now recovering wonderfully.  It was worth the wait.

The Bible has quite a bit to say about being still and waiting on God’s intervention in our lives.  Psalm 37:7 instructs God’s people to “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes” (New International Version).  Even when life seems terribly unfair—and it often is–and we want to take things into our own hands, it is still worth waiting on God and allowing Him to work things out according to His timing.

If you are struggling with something that is not being resolved as quickly as you would like, the best step you can take is found in the words of the psalmist:  “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently  for Him.”  Is that easy to do?  Often not.  Just remember that God is fully trustworthy, and when we wait upon Him in sincere faith, it is worth the wait.