Skip to main content

Waiting

Waiting. I'm not very good at it and my guess is that neither are you - at least not if you're an American. If you think otherwise, take a trip to Africa and hang with the locals. Now they know how to wait!

Monday evening, Marc and I watched a movie, Fireproof. Other than Kurt Cameron who plays the main character, we found ourselves laughing and screaming by turns at the lack of talent displayed by the other actors. It's a cheesey Christian movie, but it has a good story line. Nearing the pinnacle of the climax, Kurt Cameron's character has to wait for his wife to fully realize that he's changed, that he still loves her, and that she should stop divorce proceedings. The camera pans the life of this man as he waits. It shows him living his life day by day - at work, at home, walking, praying, cooking, etc. While we watch him, a song plays in the background. I don't know who sings it, and I didn't grab pen and paper to record the lyrics. I enjoyed the movie, but even if I hadn't, the truth of that song was worth the two hours of my life that I spent as I watched it.

While I can't give you the lyrics word by word, I can tell you the gist of it:
I will work while I wait.
I will serve while I wait.
I will worship while I wait.
I will pray while I wait.
I will do whatever God sets before me to do while I wait on Him for His timing in this thing.

I'm waiting for something - a dream that sprouted in my soul 38 years ago. I don't know when that dream will come true, but what I do know is that while I wait, I will serve God. While I wait, I will worship Him. While I wait, I will love my family and my friends. While I wait, I will keep the eyes of my heart steadfastly on Jesus. If I don't, I might miss something.

I want to be ready, poised, for His timing. I want to be like my dog, who, when I place a treat on the floor before her, doesn't look at the treat. She looks at me with her big brown eyes, and she waits. It doesn't matter how long, her gaze never flutters to that for which her entire body literally quivers with desire. She keeps her eyes locked on mine. Ready. Anticipating my "okay." Nothing distracts her. She doesn't want to be a millisecond late.

Neither do I.

Comments

  1. Sissie ConMay 1, 2010 at 6:20 AM

    You are praying my same prayer...loved the analogy of the dog treat. (Unfortunately, Laila just will stare at the treat and NOT at me. No wonder God never used that scenerio to teach me!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. L S FisherMay 3, 2010 at 7:48 AM

    Lori,

    I love your blog! Your writing is so inspirational. Thank you for sharing.

    I plan to go back and read all your posts--but it will take some time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Brad LademannMay 7, 2010 at 10:25 AM

    Lori--

    Just a little note to encourage you in your waiting and working and serving and worshiping and living. I do believe that God puts dreams in us for a reason, not just to tease us. It may not look exactly the way we picture it so we need to pay attention. Keep writing. It's not in vain.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Resting...Resting?

A few weeks ago, my husband and I had dinner with our daughter-in-law and two of our grand children. My daughter-in-law lost her job a couple of months ago. I wanted an update on current job prospects or plans, so I asked, "What are you doing these days?" Her answer was simple and yet incredibly profound.              Resting. (Is that even a word in the American lexicon?) I'm proud of her, and of them, for making the decision that it's time for her to rest. She's been in hyper-drive for all the years I've known her (over 16).  That word has haunted me since she spoke it. Resting. What would happen if I...if you...gave it a try?  In Psalm 23: 6a, David says Surely goodness and mercy will follow me. In K.J. Ramsey's The Lord is My   Courage (page 240), she tells us that our English word, "follow," doesn't convey the power behind the original Hebrew word that David used (radaph). She tells us that radaph means "to pursue, chase, and pers
1 comment
Read more

It's Time to Take off the Sunglasses

 Americans have a favorite pastime, and no, I'm not referring to baseball or football. This pastime doesn't cost any money. You don't need tickets, and there's no set game time. It happens every day. You don't need to be physically fit. You don't need special training. We do it at book club, at work, on the road, in meetings, having lunch with friends, etc. You get the idea. What is it? Complaining. We love to complain, and I'm right there in the fray, tearing everything and everyone apart. Sometimes it wears me out. My mom passed away many years ago, and one of my all-time favorite memories of life with her goes back to my summer between high school and college. We worked together that summer. Drove together every morning, bright and early, right into the rising sun. One morning, my mom reached into her purse and grabbed her sunglasses, putting them on just as we rounded the bend on the St. Louis-rush-hour-busy road that put us directly in the sun's pat
Post a Comment
Read more

1%

Gideon: By his own admission, his family was the weakest of his tribe, and he was the weakest in his family (Judges 6: 15-16). Midianites: Big bullies who oppressed the Israelites back in the day. As the story goes, this little-nobody-Gideon is doing manual labor for his dad (I'm thinking that this might be akin to working at Walmart - not exactly a career - or even a job - that causes anyone to preen), when an angel calls him, "a mighty man of valor" (Judges 6: 12). Huh? Oh, you mean this other guy, right? Nope, I'm talkin' to you. Fast forward and we find this little-nobody-Gideon camping near Israel's oppressors with a team of 32,000. This seems like a lot until Gideon checks out the enemy and finds that there are so many Midianites and their pals, the Amalekites, that no one can count them. They seemed "like locust in abundance and their camels were without number as the sand that is on the seashore." (Judges 7: 12) Gulp. What does God
1 comment
Read more