WAIT!

The state highway department recently completed revisions to the major artery to which our street connects. The new left turn lanes and smooth paving are a real pleasure. But not a pleasure is the new timing of all the traffic lights along that site. We can wait as long as 2 minutes to get a green light to cross that road or turn onto it from our little street. Two minutes doesn’t seem like a big deal until you’re sitting at the red light with no cross traffic, and you still have to wait.

We wait all the time: in check-out lines, for appointments, on hold with tech support, etc. The Oxford American Dictionary defines the word “wait” as to “stay where one is or delay action until a particular time or until something else happens.” That’s how I usually think of waiting. But a secondary definition is to “remain in readiness for some purpose.”

That latter definition seems much more positive, more intentional. I am currently waiting for my strength and full activity to be restored following recent surgery. Isaiah 40:31 promises that “they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (ESV).

If I wait remaining “in readiness for some purpose,” it seems more pro-active a waiting. I’m not just passively sitting around, waiting for the light to turn or my body to heal. I’m realizing that God has a purpose behind the waiting and that waiting is a time of preparation for His plan to unfold.

So, Lord, please keep me in readiness for the next step you have planned for my life.