Waiting Room: Part III

Until Then

In Bleak House by Charles Dickens, Richard is a passionate young man with the world in his proper top hat. Yet he goes against the advice of his wise, compassionate guardian, Mr. Jarndyce, and places all his energy and resources into a court case which may or may not promise him an inheritance. Of this and his unjust accusations about Mr. Jarndyce, he says to a friend, "See another reason for urging it on! I may find out when it's over that I have been mistaken in John Jarndyce. My head may be clearer when I am free of it, and I may then agree with what you say to-day. Very well. Then I shall acknowledge it and make him reparation."

And his friend bemoans in her head, “Everything postponed to that imaginary time! Everything held in confusion and indecision until then [1]!”

Do not put everything on hold until that imaginary time, whatever you do.

All of us have God-given callings, vision, purpose, desires, delights, and talents. And all of us are waiting on the fulfillment of these things in some way or another. As children in school, and then single young adults—indeed, in any time of life—it can be particularly tempting to view our station in life as a holding room. We are prone to fancy ourselves sitting dully in a green room, dallying for the moment when the world becomes a stage and the moment of destiny has arrived. Yet as I, and I hope you, have learned in Part I (read here) and Part II (read here) of this series, while God has us waiting in some areas of our lives, He certainly has not put our lives on hold. This is your life! Now! So live it! God has given you the hazy, azure mountain peaks in the distance, but that does not give you permission to pause and pine over them. Lace up your boots and start your hike on the path God has for you now!

The Reward of Waiting

David’s epilogue—the result of many years of tenuous waiting—is precious. “And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’ From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior—Jesus (Acts 13:21-23).”

For your waiting and your work, can you imagine a better mountain peak than this? Could David have possibly imagined this when, as a youth, he was set apart by God to be king of Israel? You can be sure that there will be a mountain peak or two in your life—it just may look different close-up than it did far away. If you can wait, and in your waiting, act; if you can act, and in your action dream; if you can dream, and outside your dream serve, then you have learned indeed the lesson of waiting.

God rewarded David’s abiding with the most precious prize imaginable: “I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel. And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a great name, like the name of the great men who are on the earth. When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son...My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever (II Samuel 7:8b-9, 12, 14a, 15-16).”

This is the ultimate mountain peak of waiting. And it’s worth waiting for!

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[1] Dickens, Charles. "Chapter 37: Jarndyce and Jarndyce." Bleak House. Oxford [u.a.: Oxford Univ., 1991. Print.

Photo Credit: Dave Morrow

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.