From Darrell's Desk
By Rev. Darrell Maguire
Well surprise, surprise! I somewhat goofed last month thinking that was my last instalment of this column, but I forgot that our submissions are in a bit before the publication date, so I could submit something for this summer edition. This is certainly an unexpected opportunity, but it also means a pressing problem. What do I write about?
Last month I wrote about transitions, mentioning my impending retirement, so I can't dig into that again. I am not yet in retirement as I write this, and I have no experience in that stage of life yet, so I have no wisdom to offer there either. I guess I am kind of in a state of not there yet, but kind of not back in the previous state either.
Here I am watching, waiting, anticipating, imagining what is to come. A more apt description may be to say I am in a kind of holding pattern. Like a plane waiting its turn to land. As I thought about this state of being, I realized that God's people in the Bible and for our whole history have often found ourselves in these holding patterns.
My holding pattern time at this juncture is very limited, but other times God's people waited a considerable length of time. Israel as a people were quite used to waiting on the actions of God. In Egypt they languished in bondage until they were finally delivered. Then Israel waited for the arrival of their Messiah, and many of our Jewish friends are still waiting for the Saviour we recognize as being Jesus.
On an individual level, King David wrote, “How long, O Lord, must I wrestle with my thoughts.” Job suffered, wondering all the time not only what was going on but how long he had to suffer. In the New Testament, Jesus is recorded as healing people who suffered for years from ailments, or demons that tormented them, all of them wondering how long they had to endure.
Then there are our own experiences of waiting and wondering how long we must endure. When is my new job going to come through? When is my loved one going to be finally healed? How long will my child or grandchild rebel against all authority causing immense heartache? How long will drugs be the scourge of our society, destroying hundreds of lives? Sometimes, when our loved one is clearly dying and yet suffering, we wonder how long until God takes them home and ends their pain.
I have always said that the most appropriate name for any location I have ever heard is a “waiting room”. All of us have sat at the doctor's office, or the hospital, waiting to finally get an answer, get some attention and ultimately some treatment. We all have queued up for service at a government office and the cashier at the store. We have all sat in our cars in a slow-moving traffic jam, wondering when we will get home or to some other destination. It can be so hard not knowing what is next, but even worse is not knowing when that next thing is going to start.
So, I wonder, can God redeem our waiting? Turn our languishing into something of eternal value. I guess the first step is to acknowledge that nothing in life is an accident or without purpose, so maybe our waiting has a purpose. Our anticipation is an opportunity for prayer, for refection, and maybe even more important it is an opportunity for rest. It is impossible to be overrun with a myriad of tasks when we are sitting in a slow-moving car on the 403. Yet maybe that is a good thing. Maybe God wants to talk to you or wants you to think about something other than what you think is important.
May God bless our waiting, as much as our doing, as we glorify Him.
