Settling into the Rhythm of Waiting

From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for Him.

Isaiah 64:4 ESV

Sheltered between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the Bay of Fundy boasts the world’s highest tides. Every six or so hours, the land is blanketed by over one hundred million tons of seawater and then exposed again as the water recedes. Like a tub of water in constant motion orchestrated by the sun and the moon, the tide pulls in and then retreats, exposing creatures and causing boats to sit tilted on the sandy bottom. Stand in the Bay for very long and you will sense the urgency of the tide. This natural phenomenon is a daily reminder that time is not idle, and even the earth longs for the waiting to cease.

I am intimately familiar with the landscape of waiting. Like the fisherman accustomed to the tide, I have learned to live within it, simultaneously expecting and surrendering. I once believed you counted while waiting, and then you received. Like a child at Christmas, you could strain through the days and then magically hit a bingo, a prize. It’s not this way, not at all. And the landscape is not stagnate but rather holds the motion reflected in the tide, set to a rhythm that is bigger than counting and self-devised plans.

I have sat with and pondered over the Biblical characters who waited, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Hannah, and David. Do I need to name more? Perhaps it would be shorter to list those that didn’t wait. Saul comes immediately to mind, as does Judas. Both ultimately walked a path of self-destruction. I have googled, read, studied and prayed. My conclusion is always the same, waiting is the way of the Christ follower.

Why would a God who can do anything, give anything, fix anything, declare He loves us and then make us wait?

There is much more to be gained in waiting than the end prize, abundantly more so.

God’s purpose in loving us, is that one day we will choose to love Him back. We cannot love Him back if we do not know Him. We rarely have the desire to know Him if at first we do not desire something that only He is able to give.

We often start our relationship with God conditionally. I will come to you, God, if you give me what I want. The way of the world is to teach us that God loves us conditionally. The world teaches us that He will only love us if we do what He says in His book. This is not the truth, He loves us before we even have knowledge of His book. Our terms for loving God are conditional, not His for loving us.

So how does this patient, loving God, work on our stubborn, stone-cold hearts, us kneeling with begging hands held open? He makes us wait. Because if this is the first time we’ve earnestly sought after Him, He’s gonna squeeze every possible opportunity to reveal Himself into our tiny, pitiful effort of asking. A willingness to wait sets our feet in the expanse of shifting tides, of moving in and moving out, of dry seasons and drowning seasons, of sunshine and storms, of soothing water and crashing waves. In the shifting tides we learn that we will drown without Him and that He is faithful to keep us from drowning as long as we keep reaching and stay put. In the shifting tides we learn to trust Him.

When slowly, reluctantly, we learn to trust Him in the movement of 100 million gallons of water, everything changes. We bring with us our human heart that has often experienced hurt, disappointment, rejection, manipulation and fear by someone we love or have loved. But here abides a great big, powerful God, who stands in the water with us as long as it takes for us to surrender to the absolute truth that He will, without fail, stand in the water with us as long as it takes.

Now who is waiting?

Is it no wonder He sets a desire in our heart that only can be filled by Him? It’s His hook, line and sinker to catch His beloved bride.

How did God get me into the water? He allowed my own actions to bring my heart to a state of absolute brokenness, where He was my only hope for something different. My only hope, He led me to a season of desperation filled with childlike tantrums, demands and open begging hands. And then He waited. He waited on me to calm down. He waited on me to seek Him. He waited on me to go to His book, where I read His letters written to me. And He began to show up, in very kind, loving ways and ways only He could to make it absolutely sure that my analytical mind could not dismiss Him.

This did not happen in a certain number of days that could be counted. I had tremendous fear that God would leave me and that He was out to trick me, or manipulate me. Sitting here in the present, familiar (not always comfortable, but familiar) with the rhythm of the tides, this seems silly. He repeatedly promises in His word, that He won’t leave me, but my fear said otherwise. Logically, why would He manipulate me, He needs nothing from me and has everything to give me, but that is what I knew and that was my fear. For me to personally work through these fears and trust Him, the two of us had to go through many, many cycles of the water moving in and moving out, me reaching and Him not letting me drown. Your fears may be very different, but I’d guess you may have cycles to endure as well.

Now who is waiting?

Healing happens in the tide waters. Our souls need the salty water, and once we know He won’t let us sink, and we’ve stopped kicking and screaming, the perpetual motion of that water begins to soothe us. Because if we are not whole, how can we receive what we are waiting on without spoiling it before it’s given?

Hope leads us into the waiting waters. Trust in God’s faithfulness keeps us there. Remember, we can always run out, run away, stop seeking, stop calling, stop praying, stop waiting. We can always hide, fill our desire with lesser things, with distractions, with more that leads to empty. He does not keep us there, we must remain there of our own volition. God will never force Himself upon us. He will run in when invited, but He will not enter uninvited. When God gives us a personal promise, or when we consume a promise from His book, it is up to us to hold onto that promise no matter what. God is faithful to the promises in His book, and He is faithful to the promises He speaks over our lives, absolutely, no compromise. But we must remain. Once we know in our core that He is the faithful one, no amount of feelings, circumstances, or hurdles, can keep us out of those waters.

Once we know He is the faithful one, our hearts open to His love for us. And if He loves us and is the giver of all good gifts, and all things work for the good of those who love Him back, this makes all things secondary to the love we now have for Him.

See how that works?

While we enter His presence to ask, He works on our presence.

While we are sorting through trust issues and disappointment, He becomes the one thing that can be trusted without disappointment.

While we are asking for the desire of our heart, He becomes the desire of our heart.

Is it no wonder He sets a desire in our heart that only can be filled by Him? It’s His hook, line and sinker to catch His beloved bride.

Does your heart not break for those that never remain? For their hearts will forever be longing for that which they will not find. The Creator designed us with an empty space that only He can fill. Do we ever leave the waiting place? I don’t think so, not until we see His face. That is the ultimate desire intrinsic to our souls, to see the face of the Bridegroom. I believe everything else, even that which we still ask for, will fall a little bit short, spoilt by the fallen nature of the world.

Does this seem hopeless? Not at all, for a small taste of His holy presence sustains us through the next dry season, the next drowning season. A word from Him is like good wine, soothing our hearts, quieting our spirits, inviting us to remain to taste of Him again.

There is more to the Bay of Fundy than the ever shifting waters. It is also a geological phenomenon. Drive a few miles and the coast turns from red sand to black, from sand to smooth rocks, drive a few more and you’ll encounter large jagged cliffs being shaped by the force of the water. An ever changing landscape, subject to the same seawater, the same rhythmic tide. Don’t expect the landscape of your waiting to remain the same, but do expect the One who led you there to keep moving, to keep working, to keep showing up.

Why would a God who can do anything, give anything, fix anything, declare He loves us and then make us wait? Because in our waiting we learn to love Him back.

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In retrospect, I can see that “wait” is the most precious answer God can give us. It makes us cling to Him rather than cling to an outcome. God knows what I need. I do not. He sees the future. I cannot. His perspective is eternal. Mine is not. He will give me what is best for me. When it is best for me.

Vaneetha Rendall Risner – The Unwelcome Gift of Waiting