Waiting is Not Wasting Time: Advent 2024

God’s dealings with us are always on the order of what he did with Abram and Sarai. He makes his promises, and he will keep his promises; but just how and when he will keep them is something for which we must wait. But keep them he will, and in ways other and better than we can think, as he works for our good in all things.

—Ben Patterson, Finding Hope When God Seems Silent

Taking Inventory of our Waiting Skills

How are you waiting? Me, to be honest, it’s never been a great strength. No one, as far as I am aware, has ever said, “Stu, oh yeah, I know him, he’s a really patient person.” That’s never been one of my great strengths. And yet, what we know from scripture, and especially from the season of Advent, is that waiting is a core experience of life. But in order to accept the power of waiting to shape us closer to Christ’s image, we have to overcome some of our cultural assumptions-namely that “waiting time is wasted time.” Dr. Seuss, aka Theodore Geisel, speaks both to the inevitability and angst of waiting in his book, Oh, the Places You’ll Go.

Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored. There are games to be won.

…Except when they don't
Because, sometimes they won't.

I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you....

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

…Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come,
or a plane to go or the mail to come,
or the rain to go or the phone to ring,
or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting. [emphasis added]

Is "The Waiting Place" useless, though? That’s seems to be Suess's perspective. Eventually the protagonist of the story “breaks out” of the waiting, shooting forth like a star to ever-higher mountain vistas of achievement. Is that all waiting is, though? Is it a pointless barrier between hope and achievement?

While it is a natural human perspective—and easier than ever to feel, with the world at our fingertips through broadband and two-day shipping—I have my doubts.

Scripture is so full of waiting. 40 years in the wilderness. 70 years in exile. 400 years of silence. An unspecified wait until Christ's return. How can it be useless? It's my conviction that there is a treasure to be attained if we allow God to work within us as we wait.

On Hold with Divine Tech Support

Think about those 400 years of waiting between the last prophet and the birth of Jesus. Generations were spent anticipating something they would not live to see.

We get a glimpse of that lived experience of the faithful in Luke 2:22-38, when Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the temple and they are greeted by Simeon and Anna.

Simeon, who was "righteous and devout," had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he saw the Messiah, the "consolation of Israel." I’ve always wondered what it would have been like for Simeon—what it would have felt like to meet the Messiah after a life of waiting. Our glimpse is his memorable prayer—enshrined as the Nunc dimmitis (or "The Song of Simeon) in traditional liturgies.

As he held the Messiah—still just a baby full of promises—he blessed God, saying,

Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel. (Luke 2:29-32, ESV)

Simeon's words capture the hope for the Messiah—a hope he only ever saw the very beginning of—he never heard the teaching, saw the miracles, Christ's witness on the cross, or the resurrection. The end of waiting brings peace. He and Anna stand in for the faithful of Israel—who also had been given a promise of a Messiah. They too perhaps feared, but held firm in faith, that that promise would be fulfilled.

Simeon and Anna's lives of righteous and faithful waiting, allowing God to work in them all the while, brought them, late in life, to a place where they could recognize (and to even hold in their arms) the baby they—and those faithful generations before them—awaited.

How Well Do You Wait?

I recently had to wait for something really important that was out of my control. At first, fear and frustration took root. I often found myself in a foul mood. But as the crisis continued, I began to realize that I had to make a change.

So, I did two things.

First, I took matters into my own hands. I came up with a plan and put it into motion.

Second, at the same time, I made a resolution every morning to pray, to sit in God’s Word, and to remind myself that my identity, my self-worth—none of it was threatened by this situation. Each day, I woke up a child of God, and each evening, I would go to sleep a child of God. Of course there were still bad days—dark days—days when I was angry, sad, or wanted to give up.

And the plan I put into motion... it didn't work. It even may have made the wait longer. That's the way it goes with our plans. But turning back to God daily reminded me of something Ben Patterson wrote about successes and failures of waiting on God,

Triumph and failure always go together in the wait of faith. They are the head and tail of the same coin. Show me a person who has had no struggle with waiting, whose faith has known no swings between victory and defeat, and I’ll show you a person who has never really trusted God with his or her life.

To wait on God is to struggle and sometimes to fail. Sometimes the failures teach us more than the successes. For the failures teach us that to wait on God is not only to wait for his mercy, but to wait by his mercy. … The success of our waiting lies not in who we are, but in who God is. It is not our strength that will pull us through to the end, it is God’s amazing grace and mercy. 

It is that amazing grace and mercy which enables us to wait out the waiting.

It is that grace that can allow us to recognize that the truest thing about ourselves is not what we do, but what God in Christ has already done on our behalf. My sense of self could remain intact because who I am is not “Stu Strachan—Amazing Parachurch Leader,” Or “Stu Strachan—Entrepreneur Extraordinaire.” My identity is “Stu Strachan—Child of God,” a sinner, an occasional bungler, but most importantly, a deeply loved child of the King of the universe. It’s an impressive title, I know, though I did nothing to earn it. 

Advent is a Season of Waiting

Advent is ultimately a season of waiting, when we prepare our hearts for Christ’s birth—and his return. It also offers us an opportunity for God to shape us in profound ways in the waiting.

There is room for us to experience God’s grace and mercy in the waiting, if we allow God into our hearts. And that’s my prayer for you and your flocks as you prepare to proclaim the gospel this Advent season. No matter what you're waiting for (big or small, distant or near), I pray that God's presence will draw you ever closer to the truth of your identity in him, not as “Perfect Pastor” or even, “Mostly Competent Leader,” but as God’s imperfect (if one who is still learning patience), but dearly beloved child of God.

Sermon Resources on Waiting

As we go into Advent, I thought it would be worth sharing some perspectives on waiting which you could use in your sermons in the coming weeks.

1. Ben Patterson quote taken from Waiting: Finding Hope When God Seems Silent, Copyright (c) 1989 by Ben Patterson. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com

2. Dr. Suess, Oh, the Places You'll Go (Random House Books for Young Readers, 1990).

3. Annie Downs quote taken from It's Not Your Turn by Heather Day. Copyright (c) 2021 by Heather Marie Day. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press. www.ivpress.com