Wait on the LORD

During the summer of 1958, I spent twenty-one days waiting. Three long weeks of hopeful expectation day after day were spent awaiting the delivery of an archery set from the then popular Eaton’s catalogue. My mother had made the telephone order and told me that it was unlikely the much awaited bow and arrow set would arrive from the Toronto distribution centre that week. I still watched for the delivery truck each day, just in case. There were so many deliveries by Eaton’s in those days that I could observe the Eaton’s truck coming down our long street at the about the same time daily. Each and every day for that three week period I trusted that the truck would indeed pull into our driveway. My faith was renewed each night and I just knew the driver would make the delivery the next day. There was no notice or any forthcoming information from Eaton’s as to why the delivery was delayed. The reason for that is that they probably didn’t know it was delayed. I was the only party who held that opinion. As a child, I remember learning patience on a regular basis. Instant gratification was not a part of my generation’s childhood experience. We learned to wait and hope and then the next day to wait and to hope once again.

Come with me to the summer of 2010. We ordered for Lozanne an Apple iPad directly from the Apple Store Website. It was unavailable in local stores. We were informed clearly at the time of ordering that there would be a ten day wait before shipping probably because the computer had not been built yet. On the tenth day, I received an email informing me that the iPad had been shipped. I was given a tracking website address with the promise that we could follow the progress of the shipment. As a matter of interest, I followed the breathtaking progress of that package from the surprise, to me at least, manufacturing site of Shenzhen, China to Hong Kong, to Memphis, Tennessee, to Toronto and finally to North Bay, Ontario in four days less a few hours. The irony was that it then took three days to move the order the last few hundred kilometres up the highway. All the while, however, I was informed where the package was for the Friday, and the weekend. I knew it would arrive on the Monday. The whole process reminded me of how the wait for expected orders had changed since 1958. There was no wondering and little expectation of gratification daily because I was aware exactly of the location of the prized package. There was no looking for the truck. There was no reacting to the noise of a vehicle in the driveway. The excitement of expectation had been removed from the wait!

The phrase “wait on the LORD” appears three times in the Psalms and twice in the Book of Isaiah. The meaning in each instance is virtually the same. As I was contemplating the differences in waiting between the experiences as described above, I could not help but realize that waiting on the LORD is much more like my 1958 experience than the summer of 2010. In Psalm 27: 14 we read the following encouraging words.

14 Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!

Waiting for the LORD involves the same skill set and emotions of my boyhood waiting. In faith, we are to hope for the LORD daily. We are to look for the LORD daily. We are to expect the LORD daily. Finally we are to trust in the LORD daily. Those of us who have had the opportunity to enjoy this hopeful expectation and to have our wait rewarded by joyful communion or answered prayer have no desire for any changes to this ancient and God designed process.

(Comments, corrections, suggestions or rebuttals are welcome. My email link is contained in “About me: view my complete profile” to the right of this page or use the comment section below which requires that you have a Google account.)

Waiting

It has become a rare event indeed for me to be in front of this keyboard in the middle of the afternoon. It is actually daylight. I am stuck with a wait and indeed the wait is stimulating me to write a blog. As I write, I am also keeping an eye on the driveway so as not to miss a much expected truck entering our yard. I am really waiting. Waiting is not one of my strong suits. This afternoon the experience is very frustrating. I am waiting for the furnace repair man who was to arrive this morning shortly after 10:00 A.M. When I finally called the office at 12:30 P.M., I was promised his presence by 1:30 P.M. It is 3:15 P.M. and I continue to wait. The house is not cold, but then again it is not as warm as it usually is which also adds frustration to the wait. Lozanne is wrapped in a large comforter. Since we a going out this evening, I am beginning to wonder if the service man will pull in as we are leaving. I marvel at the number of service companies who set a time that seems to satisfy the customer, but have little intention of meeting that commitment. On the other hand, I fully understand the demands on the service man’s time. He is moving as fast as he can amidst some rather unhappy homeowners, especially those without heat. If I could think of an alternative to waiting, I would be delighted to act upon it. One positive result of my wait is the scripture that the wait brings to mind.

14 Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!(Psalm 27: 14)

Here we have a wait that is different in so many ways when compared to my wait today. We are able to wait on the LORD in confident expectation. We wait in faith. We wait in prayer. We wait in His will. We can trust His promises.

The greatest assurance comes after the wait. When we are in difficulties, even as mundane as waiting for the furnace repairman, the lord exhorts us to be of good courage and that He will strengthen our heart. Waiting on the Lord is so effective that David the psalmist tells us again to wait on the Lord. If through faith, we keep up our spirits even in time of difficulty, He will always make us stronger.

I feel much better now and behold the service man just pulled in!

(Comments, corrections, suggestions or rebuttals are welcome. My email link is contained in “About me: view my complete profile” to the right of this page or use the comment section below which requires that you have a Google account.)