Daily Word of Grace # 99 (July 31, 2020)

Ever since Tom Petty’s hit “The Waiting” was released in the spring of 1981, when I was in sixth grade, it has been my favorite of his songs.  It not only has a catchy and memorable hook but also a recurring phrase to which all of us can relate: “the waiting is the hardest part….the waiting is the hardest part.”  So true, isn’t it?  I will confess that waiting has never been a strength of mine, but I am not alone.  We do not like to wait in line, or wait in a doctor’s office, or wait on hold on our phones (especially when subjected to painfully bad “waiting” music), or wait for someone to text us back a simple answer to a simple question.  As human beings things are never done fast enough—and although our technology has advanced and we are able to complete transactions and other things so much faster than before, we still do not like to wait.  And yet scripture often calls us to “wait for the Lord” to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.  The psalmist wrote, “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27:14), and as the prophet Isaiah put it this way, “those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).  And what happens when we wait for the Lord?  The Lord always comes through, even if it’s not on our little timetable, so that eventually we can echo the psalmist, “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry” (Psalm 40:1).

Love and Prayers,

Dave