My mom texted me the word: savor.
She was telling me to savor the day I had ahead of me, but the word rang true in so many ways. How much of the goodness of God do I miss, simply because I don’t slow down long enough to open my eyes and savor it?
Savor it.
Most of the time, I don’t know how to savor the moment, the day, whatever is right in front of me because I’m waiting for the next thing to unfold. I trick myself into thinking, “Once this happens, then I can savor it…”
I am coming to understand that all of life is waiting. Yet, I keep falling for the trap that if I can just get what I want – my dreams fulfilled, my prayers answered – then I won’t have to wait anymore.
Christians talk a lot about seasons. As a pastor myself, I’ve started to notice how often I do this. I find myself asking someone in my congregation, “How is this season going?” or “How can I pray for you in this season?” It’s not that I dislike the metaphor of seasons. God made seasons and where I live in Canada we get all of them. It can be helpful for me to see my life through that lens – to know sometimes I’m living in a cold winter, or through change like autumn, or new growth like spring, or the beauty of summer.
But what if waiting isn’t a season?
All of life is waiting for something: a proposal, a job, a baby, more money, the stoplight to turn green. We sit in waiting rooms, we wait for healing, phone calls, a text to come through, for things to get better. We wait for a spouse, for kids to come back to us, for “the season to end.”
It turns out, waiting isn’t a season at all. We’re always waiting for something.
I hate that revelation. I hate waiting. I want to get to the next thing, and I want to get there right now.
In Scripture, waiting isn’t impatient or frustrated. When the Bible talks about waiting on the Lord, it’s referring to a trusting, joyful anticipation of what God might do.
Imagine that! Imagine, in your waiting – whatever you might be currently waiting for – you started to see it less as a season that hopefully will end soon, but more as an opportunity for deeper trust and joyful anticipation of what God might do.
Listen to these words from Isaiah 40:28-31 (NASB):
“Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired.
His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives strength to the weary,
And to the one who lacks might He increases power.
Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,
Yet those who wait for the Lord
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.”
This passage fills me with fresh hope and anticipation of all God might do while we wait. It turns out, the goal of waiting is not to simply kill time until we get what we want.
The goal of waiting is to stir up joyful anticipation of what God might do next. The text says it all: we get tired; God doesn’t.
It’s okay to get tired of waiting. I don’t think that’s wrong. But I just don’t want to miss out on what God could be forming in me during the waiting. The new strength He’ll bring. The trust He’ll deepen. Or perhaps even, the joyful anticipation and wonder of all He could do…
That’s something I’m excited to savor.
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