Day 8: Okay, Lord, I am waiting like you said to. So.... What happens now?

Day 8: Okay, Lord, I am waiting like you said to. So.... What happens now?

Read: Job 6:11-13, Psalm 27 (Song of Confidence in God), Psalm 25 (Prayer for Guidance and deliverance) Isaiah 40:21-31, Matthew 11:1-5, Acts 1:1-8.

Patience, Patience, Patience, wait for it ... wait for it ... wait for it ... OKAY, Now go for it!!! Hurry Hurry Hurry .... Run or you'll miss your opportunity to .... do WHAT?

One of golf’s immortal moments came when a Scotsman demonstrated the new game to President Ulysses Grant. Carefully placing the ball on the tee, he took a mighty swing. The club hit the turf and scattered dirt all over the President’s beard and surrounding vicinity, while the ball placidly waited on the tee. Again the Scotsman swung, and again he missed. Our President waited patiently through six tries and then quietly stated, “There seems to be a fair amount of exercise in the game, but I fail to see the purpose of the ball.”

Those of you who remember the "Honey Mooners" with Jackie Gleason and Art Carney remember the scene in Ralph's apartment where Ralph is trying to teach Norton how to play golf for Ralph was playing his boss later in the day. Ralph famously tells Norton that the first thing he has to do is 'address the ball' and Norton looks down; tips his hat and says "Hello Ball." The reward for which he finds himself unceremoniously shoved across the room by an angry Ralph.

At one time in my life I loved the game of Golf. I used to watch it on television a lot. Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Tom Watson, Greg Norman and yes, even Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. A wonderful game that requires great strategy a deep and thoughtful mind to study the courses - what club to use, when to use it, gauging wind direction and speed. Where are the trees, water, sand traps and out of bounds. Golf is a thoughtful game of gentleman and gentle ladies. It is a game of very precise rules that requires great attention to all the little details.

It looks so easy on television. Then the reality really sets in. It is never as easy as it looks. In 1985 or so, a friend of mine invited to go golfing with him. I had never been golfing before and was kind of excited about it. So I went even though I had no clubs. We went to a small Par three course and I rented some clubs from them. It looked so easy on television and my confidence was running pretty high. Put the ball on the tee -- stand behind it -- put your feet apart -- swing your hips a couple of times -- take a couple of practice swings and swing and ...... wait for it .... wait for it .... miss the ball, shank the ball, or worse and only hit it five feet (backwards).

But not to get too discouraged, it is a game of patience after all, carefully reset yourself, listen to your friends advice, and then try it again and wait for it .... wait for it .... miss the ball again or hit it and it goes 10 feet or it skitters along the ground with great speed threatening any worm that was fool enough to stick its head above the ground at that particular moment. I struggled to get through that Par three and I am sure that my 'more proficient at golf' friend was losing his patience with me. It was not long after that I decided I had zero patience for playing the game.

When I was in New Jersey on Army business in 1992, I decided that I would give the game another go, I promised myself that I would be more patient with myself and the game. I would wait it out and earnestly try to learn the game. So I went to a local sporting good store and purchased the cheapest set of clubs I could find. I went several times to practice ranges nearby and hit basket after basket of range balls. I read books, picked up several issues of Golf weekly and Golf Digest and try to study them carefully. I would practice in my room just like the pros did in the magazines. Gradually, with a lot of practice and equal amounts of frustration, I gradually got the hang of it. I was no Lee Trevino by any stretch but at least I found I could hit the ball straighter most of the time. My confidence grew stronger the more I practiced.

Over the next 7 years or so, I would go golfing with friends and co-workers and I felt reasonably successful. I was slower than most of the people I played with, but they seemed patient enough with me to wait while I caught up to them. There were times when I hit my club into the ground and even winged a few clubs into the water when I wasn't patient enough in my approach to the game. However, I felt I did my best to endure the lack luster of my game. That is until I went home in 1998 and went out with now a former friend to a local five par course. On the first hole I hit a shot way off to the right. The nice part of golf to me was that even though I wasn't good all the time, my friend would always wait for me to catch up before we moved on. This time, this day, however was very different. Instead of waiting patiently for me. He pushed on a head of me and completed the hole before I could get half way there. And this set the tone for the entire round of eighteen holes we 'played?' together.

He didn't wait for me to catch up. He did not slow his game down so we could share in the joy of playing together. He did not wait for me to catch up through most of the eighteen holes we played. And on more than one level, it hurt me very deeply. I never told him how I felt about it all, instead I let our friendship fall by the wayside. I decided that I was not going to be the least bit patient with him anymore. He was not waiting for me so I decided that I would not wait for him either. And a friendship we had shared since fourth grade dissolved away. I have not seen nor heard from him since, nor do I really have any desire to do re initiate contact.

We hope that others will be patient with us not just in the bad times but in the good as well. Well, as I found out and I am sure many more have as well, when through waiting patience does not materialize as we would pray for it to, the injury goes very very deep. It goes without saying that I gave up on golf after that, even watching it on television, and finally this year, simply had the junk man take the clubs away.

If ever there is some tough advice to swallow, this is probably at the pinnacle: "Wait for the Lord." The patience of Job is legendary and help up as a Scriptural model for us to learn from. Yet Job also emphatically expressed this to learn just the opposite from: What are we to learn from such seemingly contrasting and contrary words?

11 "What is my strength, that I should wait?
And what is my end, that I should be patient?
12 Is my strength the strength of stones,
or is my flesh bronze?
13 In truth I have no help in me,
and any resource is driven from me." (Job 6:11-13 NRSV)

We don't always enjoy waiting. Waiting takes energy and strength to do. And we simply do not want to wait around and waste our valuable time and resources. We can be doing a thousand other things to better take our time and fill up our days. Relevant things or irrelevant things, it doesn't matter. Anything becomes better than waiting around for who knows or even cares what. Waiting is a major buzz killer. I mean this is nothing new -- Adam and Eve could not wait to take a bite out of the forbidden fruit and they couldn't wait for God to find them so they hid in the woods and made God look for them. And so the beat moves on right through page after page of Scripture. And consequently we learned our lesson from this all too well. We hide very quickly and don't always like to be patient and wait for God to find us.

Have you noticed that High Speed technology waits for no one? We simply do not tolerate 'slow' - slow computers, slow restaurants, slow service, or slow traffic. It is just not a big part of our genetic make up. It is not embedded in our DNA or RNA. Waiting just simply does not seem to fit very well in to our human condition.

But that is not God's way. God does not mind waiting for us and He doesn't mind our waiting either. Which is great news for all of us today. In fact, God does not wait but He goes out of His way to find us wherever we may be (Psalm 139). Sometimes I get the feeling that He goes out of His way to get out of our way that allows us to be the author of situations where our only choice is but to wait and to develop patience.

Have you been there recently? Are you there now? Take heart and be strong. The Psalmist (Psalm 27) tells us most importantly to be strong and do not fear (v. 1-3), to pray (v. 4-5) , to wait it out for it will get better (v. 6), persevere and continue to pray at all times good or bad (v. 7-12), to wait, to be patient and believe in yourself, have the confidence that while you wait on the Lord to come and make a difference - you will see the difference in your lifetime (v. 13 - 14). You will be transformed.

Have you ever wondered why so often in history God waits until the last minute to step in and answer your prayer? I personally believe, from my own experience with prayer, that in that last possible moment, in that last possible second that He does His absolute best work. That is the place where we send disciples into an impatient world to give answer to John the Baptist's last earthly question from Matthew 11:2-3

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’. To which Jesus emphatically responded (Matthew 11:4-5) "‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them."

And this is the final message of Acts 1:4 - 8 given to His disciples before He ascended to heaven: (4-5) "While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This’, he said, ‘is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’ for the reward for waiting (v.8) But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’
The Fires of Pentecost came at the right moment to empower, strengthen those who waited as the Prophet Isaiah promised.

Isaiah 40:31 "but those 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.

Read any Christian biography and what do you find? What will you learn from it? Probably that the experience of the growing believer is punctuated with frequent and oftentimes extended periods of waiting. But waiting for what? Waiting for God to step in and do what He does best. We pray for redemption, for transformed lives through His love, His mercy, His forgiveness. We wait for His response. We believe that as we wait, God will respond. That as we wait we will learn wisdom to persevere. We will prayerfully come to a time of divine revelation that those who wait will find that:

13 They will abide in prosperity,
and their children shall possess the land.
14 The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him,
and he makes his covenant known to them.
15 My eyes are ever towards the Lord,
for he will pluck my feet out of the net. (Psalm 25:13-15)

Plan today to wait on God. Ask Him to accomplish exactly what He wants for you to become. Pray for the patience to wait a little longer each day.

Let us Pray:

Lord, teach me to be patient – with life, with people,and with myself. I sometimes try to hurry things along too much, and I push for answers before the time is right. Teach me to trust Your sense of timing rather than my own and to surrender my will to Your greater and wiser plan. Help me let life unfold slowly, like the small rosebud whose petals unravel bit by bit, and remind me that in hurrying the bloom along, I destroy the bud and much of the beauty therein.

Instead, let me wait for all to unfold in its own time. Each moment and state of growth contains a loveliness. Teach me to slow down enough to appreciate life and all it holds. Amen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szd9s2AEDEU

Everlasting God

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Everlasting God by Chris Tomlin in See the Morning With Lyrics