Mindful Monday 2/17: Waiting

Our Mindful Monday devotion this week is on waiting.

good things come to those who wait

Nobody likes waiting.  In our modern hurry and scurry world, everything seems to be based on what’s the fastest, most convenient way of getting anything done.  The fastest way to get from point A to point B.  Fast food restaurants make up the mainstay of many families’ diets these days.

However, we can learn SO much during those waiting periods that we could never learn any other way.  I’ve learned that the hard way myself while dealing with my family’s health crises over the past several years, our financial struggles, my son’s developmental issues with his autism.

Sometimes we do all that we can do in a difficult situation and then can do nothing else but sit back and wait. I’m in the midst of a situation like that myself.   I’ve fought tooth and nail over a financial situation and gone above and beyond what many in my position would do. There’s nothing else TO do at this point but wait.  I’m no crazier about this waiting period than anyone else, but I’m learning a lot about giving God room to work the rest out on my behalf according to His will.

I just read a devotional by Billy Graham (in my devotional book I’m using for 2014) that addressed this so beautifully (especially the last paragraph…that really touched me).  I hope it touches you as well:

WE WAIT ON GOD

“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles.” -Isaiah 40:31

Nowhere does the Bible teach that Christians are exempt from tribulation and natural disaster.  We live in a world infected with the disease of sin, and we share in its misery and pain.  

But the Bible does teach that we can face trials with a power others do not have –the power of God.  As we trust Him, God helps us endure, and even discern His purposes in the midst of suffering.  Christiana Tsai, the Christian daughter of a former governor of China, wrote, “Throughout my many years of illness, I have never dared to ask God why He allowed me to suffer so long.  I only ask what He wants me to do.”

The eagle has the unique ability to lock its joints and soar effortlessly on an updraft instead of flapping its wings.  As we wait on God, He helps us use the winds of adversity to soar above our problems.  As the Bible says, “Those who wait on the Lord…shall mount up with wings like eagles.”

–“Hope for Each Day; Morning and Evening Devotions”, by Billy Graham, February 12, evening.

 

That last paragraph about the eagle really spoke to me. “The eagle has the unique ability to lock its joints”:  the eagle is the one who initiates this –it locks its joints on purpose giving itself over to the air its soaring on.  This tells me that the eagle has done all it needs to do to reach the height it does and then it knows when enough is enough…it stops its flapping and locks its joints letting the air (I think God could be inserted here too) carry it effortlessly.  It’s effortless for a while for the eagle because it’s given itself over knowing it’s done what it needs to do to that point when it reached its height and locked its joints.

It doesn’t flap its wings…it relies on the updraft to carry it along effortlessly.

So often we tend to flap our wings tenaciously even when we know we’ve done all we can and it’s time to let the Lord do the rest.  The Lord is the wind beneath our wings!  He is our updraft and if we just give ourselves over to Him to carry us when we know we’ve done all we humanly can, then He can do the rest. He WANTS to do the rest.

As I ponder this, I’m reminded of the words of our Lord Jesus in the gospel of Matthew:

“”Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” – Matthew 23:37

He LONGS to gather us together under His wing…but all too often we are not willing.  Often time we suffer the consequences from all that flapping we do instead of trusting Him.  I know I do…

Let’s learn to wait on the Lord like that eagle soaring high on that updraft effortlessly!

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