Waiting

I pulled into my driveway after getting coffee a couple mornings ago to find a turtle crossing the blacktop. But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.

How are you at waiting? I just stink when it comes to the whole patience scene. I fume when the lady in front of me at Kroger waits until checkout is complete and then counts out $25.41 in quarters, dimes and nickels. I mumble unspiritual lectures at those drivers who cause one car to get through on a light because they don’t know enough to pull into the intersection and wait for the light to change. When I think about it, most of my life has been spent hurrying…rushing from one project to another, one job to another, one phase of life to another. There are few times in my six plus decades that I have stopped long enough to really call it waiting, and even fewer waiting patiently.

Over the last four weeks, we have attended two local churches. At one church, two full services have been devoted to the subject of waiting for God, and yesterday at another church, the sermon was on that same topic. I’m not the fastest gun the west, but even I began to suspect that I’m supposed to be thinking about the subject of waiting right now.

So back to the turtle. I have no idea where this thing came from. But it was moving across my driveway, and since I had a cup of coffee in my hand, I decided to wait until it crossed to pull into the garage. I waited, and waited, and waited. This box of legs and neck was definitely in low gear. It would poke its head out of the shell, look right and then left, stand immobile for minutes, and then take two steps and repeat the vexatious process. That turtle was driving me nuts by doing nothing but patiently taking its time to cross my drive.

As I sat and pondered all this, it occurred to me that the turtle was in no hurry. Wherever it was going (it eventually crossed my neighbor’s drive as well and disappeared into his grass), it was not programmed to stress out getting there. In some instinctive way, for the turtle the trip was just as important as the destination. And sitting there sipping my coffee, I wished I could live the same way.

My recent retirement has forced me to think about some new issues. Suddenly I find myself not working, not producing, not directing or planning or creating or…busy. And the question that I am dealing with is simply this: Is God as pleased with me when I am just being as when I am doing? I have taught for years that we don’t please God by our works (the Bible sometimes calls this sacrifice), but with our obedience and faith. Now I am testing that biblical principle as I wait. For what? I wish I knew. That might make the waiting easier. But whatever God has for me in the future, I know He wants me to wait patiently. Like the turtle, I have decided to take a few steps and stop. To look right and left and not miss what is happening around me. To enjoy the trip and appreciate that the Master Planner can make the waiting just as worthwhile as the arriving.

Are you waiting? How goes the wait?