Just Waiting

Do you ever feel like your whole life consists of waiting? I have been pondering this idea for the past year or so. I seems like my life has been one big dose of "wait." You want your prayers answered....wait. You want financial security...wait. You want boiled water....wait. I have friends that can't wait to hold their babies due in a few days and other friends that can't wait to get to heaven in order to hold their babies. We can't wait til our 2 year olds are potty trained so we can quit buying diapers. We can't wait to graduate, get married, have kids, enjoy our careers, get the kids out of the house so we can enjoy our spouses, and make more money so we can give more and get more. I am itching like never before to get to Heaven so I can see Kiley's face that I miss so terribly and my Savior's face that I have never seen but am so desperately in love with. It seems to me that life's journey is like sitting in a waiting room...anxious to get back there and see the Physician.

Our pastor, Jim, spoke on hope this morning. He said our hope can be "confident expectation" because our hope is based on God's character and not man's. A passage from Romans chapter 8 seemed to help with my dilemma of waiting. Verses 23-25 say, "Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." It is also cool in the "message" translation: "These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy." Maybe hope is just simply waiting patiently. We KNOW as believers that Jesus will return, our bodies will be resurrected, and we will have eternal, blissful life. We have been given the down payment of the Holy Spirit. But now, we wait for all that has been promised to us. We shouldn't give up in this life or say nothing matters in this alien world. We should enjoy the things and people that He has blessed us with. We should stand strong and fight in this unseen war. In the daily grind of life, when we get tired of waiting, we are to rely on the Holy Spirit that will help us along this journey. Personally, I pray that He helps me with the patience part.