With rain pouring down in buckets, I drove my 1978 baby-poop-gold Chevrolet Suburban back to town after speaking at a conference. I had all my gear in the back—poles for my ministry booth, banners, books, handouts, and all sorts of other paraphernalia. On the passenger seat beside me sat a bag of half-eaten Fire Cheetos and a huge Mountain Dew to keep me awake.
As I drove, the old windshield wipers did little to improve visibility, and the heavy rain made it extremely to see. But I was on a mission to get home and nothing was going to stop me.
I soon found myself behind a huge eighteen-wheeler that was splashing water, making things worse. I decided to give the ol’ Suburban all it had and punch the accelerator to get around the semi. Two-thirds of the way past the truck, I started to hydroplane, swerving like a water skier on the wet roads. I lost control and became a Ping-Pong ball between the truck and the five-foot concrete wall on the left of me.
At the point, everything went into slow motion. The Mountain Dew flew across the windshield, the windows shattered, and the poles from the back of the vehicle hurtled forward like a battering ram, right into my shoulders.
What probably lasted only a tenth of a second felt like ten minutes. I couldn’t gain control of the Suburban, no matter how hard I tried, and I was at the mercy of whatever would hit me next.
Fortunately (or because God watched out for me), there was a twelve-foot rut carved in the concrete that caught my left tires, popping them and catching the rims, stopping the car abruptly. The semi kept on trucking, leaving me stranded on the highway’s center median. Cars sped by, slowing occasionally as the drivers peered at me, and then hurried on. I could see the faces of the people passing in the oncoming lanes, and I knew they could see me as their expressions seemed to exclaim, “Glad I’m not you!”
The crazy part is what happened next.
Nothing.
No one stopped to help. No Good Samaritan. No cop. No tow truck. The rain now came through the broken windows, shattered glass covered the seats, my shoulders felt bruised, and my adrenaline pumped like water from a busted pipe. Still, no one stopped to help. Not even the truck driver who almost certainly saw me careen off the road.
I rummaged around and found my cell phone—no signal. Of course.
After moments of feeling completely alone and helpless, I rustled through the car to find a spiral-bound notebook and a Sharpie marker. I wrote in big letters “CALL HELP!” and held it up against the shattered windshield so oncoming traffic might stop gawking and do something useful.
Finally, more than an hour later, a fire truck pulled up and the firemen pried open the back doors of the car to see if I was okay. They called a tow truck, which arrived another hour later. I hitched a ride as my Suburban was towed to a repair shop, and then I waited another hour for a friend to come retrieve me and take me home.
It was a long and harrowing ordeal, and I felt grateful to be alive. Still, I will never forget those long minutes ticking by as I sat on the side of the road in the dark, feeling so alone. I had desperately waited for someone – anyone – to help. For quite a while, it seemed like I’d be waiting forever.
There Will be a Slight Delay
In the moments when it feels like God is nowhere to be found, we grow frustrated and discouraged. No one wants to have to beg for something, especially from God. Why won’t He just answer me! Sometimes we would rather Him say something, even if it is not the answer we want. But to say nothing stings worse.
King David understood this feeling. He screamed at God in the Psalms when he said, “Answer me, O God! My spirit fails me! Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit” (143:7). Done with waiting and on the edge of depression, he essentially said, “If you don’t start talking, you might as well send me to hell, because this is equivalent to the worst punishment ever.”
When God goes silent, loneliness and loss set in. We have two choices at that point: Will we allow our bitterness to deepen or will we allow our trust to deepen?
Just because God is silent doesn’t mean He is absent. He uses His quietness as a way to call us closer. He asked us to wait. We hate waiting when we don’t understand the purpose behind it. But if we know what we are waiting for, it suddenly makes sense to stay still.
Suppose you are at a restaurant waiting to order. You’re starving and can’t wait to get that delicious hamburger you’ve been craving. However, your waiter is nowhere to be found. You were seated at your table, given water and a menu, but your waiter never came to take your order. The longer you wait, the more irritated you become. Now you are both very hungry and very angry.
But imagine that you knew he was not helping you because of a valid reason. Perhaps he was helping a handicapped elderly lady to her car. Or he was getting you a new appetizer to try, on the house. Or he was giving the line-chef a hand after he just spilled a five-gallon bucket of salsa on the kitchen floor.
Waiting is never enjoyable, but when you know the reason for it, you are much more patient and willing to sit tight. People wait in line for Black Friday deals, the latest Apple Store gadget to go on sale, a doctor they trust, or the release of a blockbuster movie. We don’t mind waiting as long as we can anticipate the end result.
I know what you are thinking, Yeah, but God doesn’t always give us a reason. You are right. He may not reveal why He has you waiting, but you know enough about Him to make the waiting worth it.
God’s very character is that of a trustworthy, faithful, loving, and just Father (Ex. 34:6-7, Matt. 7:9-10, 1 Jn. 1:9). We wait on Him because we know His character to be true, His promises to be fulfilled, and His strength to be more than adequate.
As the people of Israel were in the midst of turmoil, waiting for God to save them, the prophet Isaiah said:
Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
(Isaiah 40:27-28)
We say the same thing as Jacob (aka Israel): “God doesn’t care about me.” We think He has bigger fish to fry in the universe, or we assume He just created us and walked away, leaving us to our own mess. But Isaiah says, “God does care! Nothing is hidden from Him.”
God never forgets His promises, never grows weary of handling details, and never shrugs off His children’s needs. He never lacks strength or desire to be involved in our lives. Never.
The human mind can’t fathom how God keeps track of all the details in the lives of all His children. With the myriad problems and disasters around the world, how does He stay involved with all of it? To put a finer point on it, how is He able to stay concerned about MY issues when the needs around the globe are so vast? Here’s how: “His understanding is unsearchable.” We could try to comprehend it, but it is a futile task. There is no way to fully understand His greatness and omnipotence, so we just trust it.
Waiters Wanted
God’s character demands that I wait on Him. By waiting on God, I will have a fearless and faithful life.
What do I mean by waiting upon Him? It means we fully rest and rely on Him without any crutch outside of Him. After explaining that God has strength enough for all of us, Isaiah goes on say:
They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (v. 31)
The way we muster strength is to wait on Him, or as another translation of Scripture simply puts it, “Trust in the Lord.” This is an act of obedience with a great reward. The challenge and opportunity is to wait on God, not run ahead of Him or look beyond Him. This means we wait without worrying. We grow anxious about nothing, but trust God in everything. Whether it is how the bills will be met this week, or how you will find a job after looking for months, or how a broken relationship can be mended–in all things we trust the all-powerful God to be our strength. Waiting on God is exercising confidence in His perfect timing.
Hurry Up and Wait
We live in a “microwave society”—we want everything in two minutes or less. When you’re standing in a long line at the grocery store, someone is likely to start ranting about the lousy customer service and the lack of good help these days. If the car at the front of the intersection doesn’t start moving a second after the light turns green, horns will begin honking. Waiting causes anxiety quickly.
So when we hear that we are supposed to wait on God, it rubs us the wrong way. The ability to wait on the Lord stems from being confident and focused on who God is and in what He is doing. It means that we are confident in His very nature. It means knowing and trusting in God’s promises, purposes, and power.
In Isaiah’s poetic language, he says we will “mount up with wings like eagles.” Just as an eagle’s feathers are made new through resting and waiting, so we will be given new wings to soar with perseverance through the battering winds of life. The fresh feather of the eagle gives a picture of being renewed with strength as the direct result of waiting on God.
The prophet goes on to write in the voice of God:
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (41:10)
The power and strength of Almighty God is your fuel for life. His strength demands our trust. Sometimes the Lord calms the storm. Sometimes He lets the storm rage and calms His child. All the while, He merely asks that we trust Him, waiting in Him to be our strength.
