The One About Waiting on God

Shanna, one of our newest readers (you can read through some of her comments on previous posts), sent me an e-mail last week from a guy named Micah Parker. He is an inspirational speaker who had something very insightful to say about waiting on God. I think that the most inspiring things we hear are those that are common sense, but often overlooked. This story falls into that category so I wanted to share it with you. SOOOOO mad props to SHANNA for bringing it to my attention. Enjoy!

Picture an 8th grade boy sitting in McDonalds with his basketball team. The team had just finished 3rd in a tournament and the boy was distraught because he felt responsible for losing a game. He finished his meal, left his ice cream cone on the table, warned his friends not to “mess with it” and went to the bathroom. He was surprised to see that the restaurant was basically empty when he came back. Where did the team go? They were probably hiding around the corner waiting to jump out and scare him or maybe they were sitting on the bus waiting for him. He saw his cone still sitting there and after checking it for salt, ran outside to get on the bus before his coach would get upset for him being late, but there was no bus. He searched the parking lot quickly and noticed the bus had just left and was slowly pulling away so he took off in hot pursuit, jumping over landscaping and cutting through the parking lot to actually pull up to the side of the bus. His short little legs kept up for about 10 steps until the bus pulled away. In desperation, the little guy threw his ice cream cone at the bus and it hit the back window, but the bus kept on going. The boy stood in the street waiting for the red brake lights to come on and one of his friends to hang his head out the window laughing, but it didn’t happen. Maybe he threw his cone at a different bus? Maybe his team had moved the bus and was waiting for him on the other side of the restaurant as a joke. When he checked and the parking lot was empty, the boy walked back into the McDonalds, sat down and wondered what he should do. Their home town was about an hour away. “I’ll just sit and wait, they’ll figure out I’m not there and come back for me,” thought the boy.

After 30 minutes, the manager of the store came out and asked if I was ok. He could tell by my expression that I was either lost or in trouble. I told him what happened but that they’d be back any time now to get me. They let me call my parents who initially didn’t believe me because people were laughing in the backgroundJ. Eventually, someone came and got me, but that was a LONG wait.

This was the first time in my life I experienced what it felt like to “wait upon the Lord.” At first, I wasn’t worried, but as time went by, I started to think I had been abandoned. Time goes so slowly when you are waiting. Whether it’s for a red light or for something more serious like test results from a doctor’s exam, it's tough to wait. One of my favorite songs right now starts out by repeating “strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord, as we wait upon the Lord.” This is a great phrase because so often we do the opposite – our strength falls as we wait. This is where God comes in. As our strength falls, He calls us to lean on Him so His strength can be revealed through your waiting.

I’ve been going 100 MPH in my life for the past 17 years as a basketball coach. Recently, God forced me to sit and wait – wait for a job, wait for direction, wait for patience. Initially this was very difficult to do because I wasn’t “waiting on the Lord”; I was trying to make something happen immediately. Through lots of prayer and time spent in the word, I was given peace about where God wants to use me next. Waiting is tough, but it can bring about peace, trust, and wisdom as GOD’S plan is revealed.

One of the greatest “waiters” in the Bible was Daniel. I can’t imagine how LONG it must have felt like WAITING in the Lions den for someone to come get him out. Sometimes God won’t deliver you from your lions den, but he’ll deliver you in your lions den. Sometimes being forced to wait out a difficult situation is better for us in the long run and God’s plan for you is better revealed by allowing you to wait rather than sparing you from the wait. I encourage you to read the book of Daniel and that God’s “strength will rise as you wait upon the Lord.”