Waiting While You Are Hurting

This morning I spent some time reading Keith Green's biography by his wife/widow Melody Green.  Then I went to the Last Days Ministry website and read some of Melody's more recent writings.  There was one statement that caught my attention.


She wrote that God will take care of us and do good things in our lives  even when bad things happen, provided we are willing to "wait while we are hurting."


Yes, well, there's the rub, isn't it?


Of course, it would be easy to say, "What choice do we have?  We have to wait even when we are hurting.  No way around it."


True.  However there is more than one way to wait, but there is only one way God can bless us while we wait.


If we wait in bitterness and anger - we just wait.  The hands on the clock go 'round, the sun comes up and goes down.  We breathe in and out - we wait.  Nothing much happens.  We just sit and wait.


But if we choose to wait in hope, in faith, in the belief that God is good and wants to share our burdens, then waiting becomes an act of faith.  


So waiting can be a passive purgatory.  Or it can become an active way to serve the Lord.  Waiting in hopeful anticipation of God's goodness does not mean that we do not hurt while we wait.  We will not always get a sudden warm wave of feel-good emotions washing over us.


It does mean, however, that we will grow in faith while we wait.  We will grow stronger and more embedded in His purposes.  Today in various war zones all over the world, journalists who want to see and hear with their own eyes and ears what is going on in those terrible places become what is known as an "embedded" journalist.


They are traveling, eating, drinking, sleeping, and running with the soldiers as they fight and live and die.


The believer can become embedded in God's purposes to the extent that even while we fight, and struggle, and hurt - we also learn and grown and become more like Him.


Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
Psalm 27:14



Linda Chapman, over at Linda's Life's Journal talks about us being in "God's waiting room."  She is waiting for her quadruplet grandchildren to be born.  Their mother is waiting to hit her 28th week of the pregnancy, struggling every day to keep those babies gestating just a little bit longer.


Sandie over at the Chatty Crone also talks about us being in God's waiting room.  She is writing about some struggles she and her husband are experiencing.


And K. and I are here waiting to find out what his next surgery date will be. Another phone call yesterday yielded no solid information, only a "please wait and we will get back to you as soon as we have a date."


Waiting.  Praying.  Hurting.  Learning.  Growing.  It is all part of God's plan for each of us.


While he does not cause the hurt, He does use it for our good to help us become more of what He wants us to be through it.
                                # # # # #
If you are hurting today, and waiting for solutions, hope you know that Someone is waiting with you.  He is able to carry you through.
Until next time, from one of your fellow "waiting room sojourners" - Marsha