In Dr. Seuss’s book, Oh the Places You’ll Go, there is a waiting place—a “most useless place.” Where people of all shapes and sizes are “just waiting.” In Seuss’s defense, he was implying these people lacked initiative to do something with their lives. But despite the truth of that, God still keeps us in that place at times. In a recent sermon, my pastor Mark Rogers said, “. . . when it comes to God, the waiting place is never a useless place. God gets so much done in the times that he has us waiting.”
Many of us feel the tension of the waiting place right now—whether still in partial quarantine, searching for a new job, or waiting for schools to reopen. God knows waiting for future grace is difficult. That’s why he instructs us not only to have patience, but courage. Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”
The Bible often uses words like strength or courage when discussing waiting (Jas. 5:8, 11; Is. 40:31; Ps. 33:20; Col. 1:11). If courage is strength in the face of fear, what does that have to do with waiting? If we’re honest with ourselves, we’d see that fear is a vice that often accompanies waiting—a fear of future suffering, of not being in control, or even of what God might bring. But the Lord tells us, “let your heart take courage” (Ps. 27:14) because our God can bring goodness from any amount of suffering, present or future.
During my husband’s job hunt, he often reminds me that God is cooking, and we must wait. We can smell the feast he’s preparing for us, and it only makes us hungrier. In that time of eager waiting, our faith is increased because we know God will be good to us—we can smell the food! We’ve eaten of his blessings before, and can almost taste what’s to come before it arrives. With such eager longing to experience God’s goodness in this world and the next, is it surprising how much courage is needed to stay in the waiting place?
I enjoy experimenting in the kitchen, and my three year old, Peter, likes to help. A couple months ago, Peter and I were preparing falafel patties when I turned away for a second, telling him not to touch anything. When I turned back, he’d dumped half a bottle of lemon juice into the bowl of chickpea flour. Had I not immediately poured off the juice, the whole thing would have been ruined.
I love how eager he is to help, but at his age, I can’t look away for even a moment in case he decides to continue cooking without me. He thinks he knows what needs to be done, but he ends up ruining the food instead.
We are often like a small child when God is preparing a way for us—eager to fix when we’ve been told not to touch. But in the waiting place, all our efforts and plans will fail or produce sour consequences.
Another Peter struggled with putting his own plans above those of his teacher. In Matthew 16:21-23, Jesus tells his disciples about his death and resurrection. “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, ‘Oh no, Lord! This will never happen to you!’ Jesus turned and told Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns’” (CSB).
Peter was essentially saying, “You may be the Messiah, but I still know better than you. What you’re saying will never happen.” Such sentiment deeply lacked faith, which is why it produced such a strong rebuke. Peter must have been shocked by Christ’s words. Perhaps he thought he was somehow loving Jesus by saying he wouldn’t die in such a way.
Perhaps we also think our intentions are good when we refuse to wait and submit to God’s plan. Instead it shows that same lack of faith as Peter.
I’m a fixer by nature. When there’s a health or developmental issue in my family, I won’t stop searching for a solution—even if it takes years. Sometimes my persistence produces good results. But at other times, I push past every dead end God errects in my path. In the end, I have to repent and deal with the consequences of my scheming and lack of faith.
Rogers said, “There are things that only God can do, and so we often find ourselves waiting on him to act. . . . We all know that waiting can be hard, right? It’s much more natural to try to make things happen ourselves—to push, and plan, and scrape, and sometimes even manipulate in order to make things happen.”
What would it look like to have faith when your life is characterized by waiting? It wouldn’t look like obsessive hunting on the internet. It wouldn’t look like hovering over all your problems feeling hopeless. It would be prayerful, courageous, and faithful. “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him” (Lam 3:25). If you’re in a season of waiting, God is preparing a feast. His goodness and faithfulness will never fail.