Been thinking about that old Tom Petty song, “The Waiting”. Remember that old tune?  “The waiting is the hardest part”  Tom croaked at us back in the 80’s.  Before I get any further, can I just say that I don’t remember Tom being as young and, I’m amazed to say, good looking, as in this video. My folks wouldn’t pay for cable back then so I missed his early MTV career. I only remember him as an old shriveled rocker in the later years. Sorry, Tom…

Anyway, I have to give it to him, he was right. The waiting IS the hardest part. I think especially so for our generation as we travel through our days at light speed. We drum our fingers on the steering wheel during gridlock, mumble in frustration when the fast food line won’t MOVE, and growl as Internet Explorer sleepily loads a website. (tip: use Firefox, it’s much faster!)

It seems like there’s always SOMETHING we’re waiting for. In almost every season of life, we have a dream that hasn’t come true yet and it can rankle and goad us. If we aren’t careful, we become irritable, bitter, and angry that we can’t get our needs met. Many of us tell God, “Enough is enough!  I don’t believe in you anymore, you haven’t come through for me, so I’m doing this myself since you can’t seem to get it together!” And we go off to make it happen, only to find out later that in our impatience we made a wrong decision…we took the wrong job, moved to the wrong place, married the wrong person.

It’s not that God doesn’t want to satisfy our desires. But He lives in a totally different space/time continuum than we do. He works like the Colorado River that washed through layers and layers of rock and, in time, created the breathtaking Grand Canyon.  That’s the kind of masterpiece He has in mind when He works on us. Through the waiting He is carving out something beautiful from the raw rock of our souls.

What He’s asking us in the waiting is to trust Him…no matter what. That is what faith is all about. As Kerrie Roberts wrote in her beautiful song “No Matter What”…

Anything I don’t have, you can give it to me, but it’s okay if you don’t. I’m not here for those things, the touch of your love is enough on its own.

When we don’t have that kind of faith, our best response is to cry out “Save me! Help me in my unbelief!” And if you’ve never felt the touch of His love, there’s no need to wait any longer for that…