Waiting Isn't a Waste: The Surprising Comfort of Trusting God in the Uncertainties of Life

by Mark Vroegop

Waiting on God is living on what I know to be true about God when I don’t know what’s true about my life.

Waiting reveals what we hope in. That can be good or bad. And it’s usually hard.

Underneath our disdain for waiting is our longing for control.

we’re surprised or frustrated that we’re having to wait. This reaction is becoming even more common because we’re being conditioned to wait less. The speed of information is increasing, and it’s decreasing our tolerance.

Have you ever considered that God could have immediately raised Jesus from the dead after he cried, “It is finished” (John 19:30)? Instead, a time of waiting—days of grief, confusion, and fear—was built into the divine plan.

God designed waiting in the world and in redemption so that he’s central, not you or me.

Waiting embraces God as a refuge while the answers are not clear and may never be.

Patience is formed by letting go of what I thought was going to be true about my life.

Rather than seeing waiting as what to do when you are stuck, what if you intentionally embraced it? What if waiting on the Lord is an expression of obedience? What if it’s an act of hope-filled, gutsy faith?

A small but important step in caring for one another is the simple acknowledgment that waiting is hard—really hard. The pain of delayed desires can lead to loneliness, isolation, shame, and insecurity.

There will come a day when our waiting will be over. Our faith will be sight. Everything will be complete. Eternal life will replace our temporary sense of time.