Tag Archives: waiting

Being Put on Hold for Two Years

Sometimes I feel like my life doesn’t measure up to the men and women in the Bible.  I read their stories of courage, of risk, of giving everything, and I feel far from that.  My day to day life can be so mundane at times, so …. well….. normal.  You know what I mean?  I wonder if God is disappointed with how I live out my life, if I should be doing more.

In Acts 23 – 26 (which is today’s reading in the Amazing Race), Paul is arrested for sharing his story.  There is a plot to kill him, he’s swept away by soldiers in the middle of the night, he speaks to a governor, and then to a king.  He is in multiple meetings with rulers, and courageously shares his story over and over.  He’s a rock star for the Kingdom, it seems to me.

Then I hit one little verse; Acts 24:27.  It goes like this:  ”When two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, but because Felix wanted to grant a favor to the Jews, he left Paul in prison.”  The following verse begins chapter 25 and the story runs on.

It’s the first five words of the verse that stood out to me: “When two years had passed…”  Paul was left in prison for two years.  It was supposed to be a couple of weeks.  It became a couple of years.  What in the world did he do during that time?  He did what all of us would do.  He got up, ate, talked to anyone around, slept, and waited.  He lived his day to day prison life.  For two years.  This is how Paul’s story flows.  BIG story, BIG story, jump forward in time, BIG story, etc.  These little jumps are so easy to miss.  But the jumps make up most of Paul’s life.  We really don’t know most of what he did.  We have little peeks into the main stories, but the day to day stuff passes by in the verses, quietly, unnoticed.  Normal, standard, day to day life.

It’s not that those days don’t matter.  It was Paul’s faithfulness in those days, the time he spent reading, praying, listening, learning, talking, eating, walking, working that made him ready for the BIG stories that came up sporadically.  It’s the same for us.  Everyday is a BIG day for God.  There are no wasted moments.  We like the excitement, the BIG story we can tell to our kids.  God likes faithfulness.  Everyday.  In the mundane.  Faithfulness.

You don’t know when you are at the end of a “two year” period, where God is just about ready to unleash your next BIG story.  We need to be faithful to what we have before us today.

Everyday matters.  Don’t give up.  Don’t quit.

It’s well worth the wait.

The Waiting Game. Again.

I almost couldn’t take it anymore.  I was reading through Hosea and Isaiah today in the Bible, and I was feeling so beat down by it.  Over and over God warns His people, and they refused to listen.  So God promised to send other nations in to destroy the country and get the people’s attention.  The warnings were dark, ominous, and seemed to go on, verse after verse, chapter after chapter, without end.  It was discouraging.  


In Isaiah 30:17, God says
“A thousand will flee 

at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
you will all flee away,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
like a banner on a hill.” 
He’s saying that the nation will be completely routed and destroyed.  No one will be left.  
I read these things and I think about my own sin, my own places I wrestle with God, where I don’t want to listen to Him.  It breaks me, scares me, and worries me.  I want to follow God, I want to serve Him, but there are still so many issues in my own life that I am working on and have so far to go yet.  
Then, after verse 17, I read verse 18:
“18 Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him! 19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you.20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
And I have hope again.  God is a God of justice.  He will do what it takes to get our attention and get us back on the path.  He is also a God of grace and compassion.  It just gives me hope that as long as I keep trying to follow Him, even when hard times come, or consequences for my sins fall, He will stand with me in them and never leave me.  Blessed are those who wait on Him.  Again with the waiting.  It’s finally starting to get through my skull.  Be faithful, stand, and wait on the Lord.
That’s not quite the normal plan for business in our culture.  That’s for sure.  ”What is your five year plan look like Jason?”  ”Oh, you know, I’m waiting on God.”  (awkward pause……)
But really, what else is there?  What else can I do?  I can try to run everything myself, work myself into a worried mess, stress over a ton of details, some I can influence and some I can’t.  Or I can trust that God is a God of compassion and grace, and I can wait.
That’s enough.  It’s more than enough.

Sitting and Waiting for the Start of the Show. (new blog post)

I’ve had a lot of conversations this morning with several people.  There is simply a ton of hurt going on right now.  I realize that is always true, but I am more aware of it just from hearing people’s situations and challenges.  Sin is such a very ugly, ugly thing.

Then I sit down and read in Psalm 106 that David speaks of his great grandparents and says this:

“13 But they soon forgot what he had done
and did not wait for his plan to unfold.”

David tells about how God had saved the Israelites.  They had great days as they came out of Egypt as slaves.  They were rescued time and time again in the desert.  God proved Himself faithful over, and over, and over, and over.  But they forgot, and they didn’t wait.

So, in this case, what should they have done?  


Remembered.


And waited.


Remembered all of the times that God had answered their prayers and saved them.  Remember the feelings of a victory that wasn’t theirs to own, of a time where God fed them, or cared for them, or spoke to them, or showed them a cloud of fire to lead them.  Remember that the God they follow isn’t into what is fair, or even, but is into grace, mercy, hope, and generosity.  Remember how their heart felt when they realized that God was really, honestly for them.  Remember how their lives changed for the better when they chose to obey Him, and He turned everything on it’s head in the most beautiful of ways.  Remember.


And wait.  When we know that God is a God who works, He is a God who is active, He is a God who hears and answers our prayers regardless of how worthy we are, then we can wait.  It isn’t like waiting with no hope.  It’s like waiting on the 4th of July, just as dusk settles.  The anticipation is huge, the excitement is palpable, you can barely sit still, just knowing that the fireworks are ready to light up the sky.  You know from years past how amazing the rockets will be.  You trust that there is a crew out there, somewhere, in the dark, setting everything up, just right.  They know exactly how to make it all work, and they are ready to go.  It all comes down to the guy in charge giving the signal, and then….. oooohhh…….ahhhhh!  It’s magical.  That is the kind of waiting we need to step into.  We know God is out there, working, preparing.  We know He is trustworthy and true.  We just need to wait for Him to give the signal, and then……


Beauty.  Magical, darkness destroying, light up the night, take your breath away, wasn’t it worth the wait, how unbelievable is this, beauty.


Remember.  And wait.

Waiting for God. (new blog post)

God and I are having a lot of discussions the last couple of weeks where I sit and am pretty quiet.  I’ll ask a question, and then sit.  You see, He’s not behaving.  At least not the way I want Him to.  I have some friends who need Him big time right now, people I love and care about.  Stuff is going on in their lives that I simply don’t understand.  I’m praying, and praying, and praying.  But the movement I so desperately want to see for them isn’t coming.

So, I keep talking to God.  And sitting.  Waiting.

Don’t get me wrong, He’s talking to me and loving me.  He’s not absent.  But the things I am asking for; good things, Biblical things, things that honor Him, just aren’t coming. 

I’ve been mad.  I’ve been hurt.  I’ve been afraid.  And I’ve been quiet.

I really don’t like it when He is like this.  I want Him to do what is right, what is just, what is kind, and I want Him to do it right now.

But it isn’t coming.  I have to choose now what to believe.  Will I believe in a God who seems to be sitting back and letting things passively move along, or will I dump it and take matters into my own hands.

I’m so broken hearted over all of this.  But I know better than to do anything but wait on Him and love as best I can.  I know He will work.  He always does.  But this waiting, this sitting, this quiet …. it hurts so much.

David in the Psalms talks about his bones growing weak and his soul being dry as he waits on God.  Jesus tells stories of perseverance and not giving up.  I never thought they actually meant it.  At least, not like this.  I want Jesus to be Superman, flying in and saving the day, right on cue.

But He’s God.  His ways aren’t my ways, His plans aren’t my plans.  Again, who would have thought He meant all that stuff when He said it?

So, we wait.  He will move.  I choose to believe He is moving where I can’t see.

Until then, I will keep asking Him for help.

And sitting.