Wednesday, December 24th

Yesterday I shared this statement. Waiting can be a gift. Waiting can help us slow down and become aware, what ARE we waiting for? Who are we becoming in the waiting? What sustains us in the waiting?

Today’s question is, what are you waiting for? Name it, wrestle with it.

Are you waiting for a decision to be made- did I make the team, the team I wanted? Did I get hired at my new job? You are waiting for a spouse. You are waiting to get pregnant.

Sidebar, Theresa and I waited in a variety of ways for that, wrestling with God in the midst of what we thought, 4 children, to being pregnant seven times, and having two wonderful kids.

Naming what we are waiting for … not getting the answers you want. Waiting on retirement, remarrying, waiting on a cure or a prognosis. Waiting on your relationship with God, growing and understanding more, waiting on….

Part of the struggle in our waiting is that we believe we will be fulfilled, “when I have…” I call that the “when I have hope.” When I have that job, when I have that spouse, when I have that kid, when I have that understanding, when I have … then I will be better off, I will have hope, based upon the circumstance we think that need to be fulfilled.

Which means we get stuck in the desire and not yet reality. Remember, God was silent for 400 years, many generations came and went before Jesus came to fulfill.

We need to name what we are waiting for because we are naming the in-between reality, we are naming the desire with the not yet. Because folks, Jesus came in the waiting and fulfilled the promise, but not in ways everyone expected. Maybe, in our naming of what we are waiting for, we can be honest, even with our intentions and then give space for God to answer it in unexpected ways.

If you want, flip over to Romans 8, we’ll take two instances at this passage. The first one is Romans 8:25- But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 
Paul is honest, name what you hope for, what you are waiting for. But also know that our hope is not in circumstances working out the way we want them. Our hope is passed on a person, Jesus. Jesus said, “He will never leave us or forsake us. He is always redeeming, always good, always working, it is trusting Christ to fulfill, he fulfilled the promise in Luke, but it’s not trusting our perceived outcome. It is trusting Jesus for what we are waiting for.

Let me give you a glimpse of this challenge, trusting Jesus for what we are waiting for. Let me use the trapeze artists, the Flying Roudellas as the example. They share that there's a special relationship between flyer and catcher on the trapeze. The flyer is the one that lets go, and the catcher is the one that catches. As the flyer swings high above the crowd on the trapeze, the moment comes when he must let go. He arcs out into the air. His job is to remain as still as possible and wait for the strong hands of the catcher to pluck him from the air.

The flyer must never try to catch the catcher. The flyer must wait in absolute trust. The catcher will catch him, but he must wait.

Do you believe that Jesus will catch you, in whatever you are waiting for him upon? Not the circumstances going your way, but that Jesus will be faithful in “catching you.”

Take some time in naming what you are waiting for, name where you have your hope, and then sit with God if you trust him to “catch you” or not. This can be a prayer, a journal, a sharing with a friend. Sometimes the most powerful statement is, “God I want to trust you, but I don’t.”

May this be a new anthem for you Trust by Pat Barrett