Waiting

Psalm 104 says "The whole earth (creation, animals, man, everything) waits for the Lord."

Yet, left to our own desires, we will tire of waiting and act. Look at the Israelites when Moses took them to the mountain to be consecrated and to hear from the Lord. While Moses was up on top of the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments, the Israelites tired of waiting and acted. Stupidly, I might add. They created an idol and worshipped it, because they tired of waiting.

Oh, how often have I tired of waiting and acted stupidly? Far too often I think.

For the past three days my entire church (those who were physically able) fasted from food. We didn't eat, but sought the Lord. The first day of not eating was not that hard. The second day of not eating, also not hard. My stomach didn't even growl! But on the third day, when I knew the end was near, I started anticipating the end of my fast. The end of "waiting" was coming soon. And the closer it got, the grumpier I got. I almost ate a cheeto at 5:00 rationalizing that if I were Jewish, I could eat at 5:00 p.m. (I read that somewhere . . . don't judge me!)

And that made me start thinking about other times I have fasted. When I fasted for one day, by the end of that one day, I was DONE with waiting to eat. But in my mind, when I knew that my fast was for three days, fasting for one day was very easy.

I might not be making sense here, but what I am trying to say is this. When in our hearts and minds WE establish how long we are to wait for something, when the end of that time draws near, we don't really care what God might want. We ACT. If God had called me to add another day to my fast, I don't know that I could have done it because my mind was so filled with what I wanted and thought I needed.

I have been in a season of waiting. And I will confess that the time has come and gone in which I expected the Lord to move. And now, very often, I am tempted to act, to move for the Lord, because He has not acted on my time schedule.

I think the psalmist meant more than "the whole earth waits" as in sitting-idly-by-doing-nothing-while-waiting. The "whole earth" is waiting and trusting, knowing that when His time is perfected, He will act. The longing in my heart should not be for the things that I want, but for the things, in the time frame, that He wants.

So today I say to you Lord, I will wait for you, though my heart longs to move. I will wait for you though my mind says to ask again. I will wait for you because having reached the end of myself, I can finally see You . . . and now I am waiting and trusting.

All that to say, the whole earth, even Carol, waits.