The Waiting is the Hardest Part

I’m a huge Tom Petty fan. My husband treated me to tickets to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 40^th Anniversary concert tour in Nashville for my birthday last year. We attended in April 2017, Tom passed away in October of that same year. I have many favorite TP songs, including The Waiting. The chorus goes like this:

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

I’m fairly sure the song applies to finding that just right person in your life, but I think the chorus resonates in all areas of our lives…

·      Waiting to graduate

·      Waiting to find a spouse

·      Waiting to have a baby

·      Waiting on the results of a test

·      Waiting on the outcome of an interview

·      Waiting in line at the grocery store

·      Waiting for the trial you’re in the midst of to pass

I’ve been co-leading my third Celebrate Recovery Step Study this year. We began in March and will likely go through the end of the year. We are currently in the midst of writing our Moral and Spiritual Inventories. For those of you familiar with recovery, you know the inventory step is a hard one. For those of you who aren’t familiar, it is simply about evaluating your life…the good and the bad, and making a list of harms or hurts you’ve done to others or that have been done to you. But, it also includes all of the good stuff you’ve done.

This step, like healing in recovery, takes time. It’s a process. I mean, most good things do take time don’t they? Getting to the good stuff is a process…like homemade ice cream or learning to swim the freestyle gracefully (and without sucking water into your lungs). Okay, maybe those examples are just important to me, but surely you get my drift.

You’ve probably heard the old saying, “Good things come to those who wait,” or you maybe remember the 80’s Heinz “anticipation” commercial. Waiting isn’t much fun, but there are over 70 verses in the Bible that refer to patience as a virtue.  Yet, most of us pray, “Lord, give me patience…and give it to me now!”

The fact is the healing of a hurt, the overcoming of a habit, and the recognition of a hang-up takes time. Knowing which path to choose takes faith, trust, and waiting. We use a lot of phrases or clichés, if you will, in Celebrate Recovery and one of my favorites is, “Don’t quit before you get your miracle.”

Waiting is hard, y’all! We live in a microwave, instant pudding kind of culture. And we rarely have to wait for anything at all. Waiting does not mean idleness. Active waiting has to do with simply doing the next right thing. Here are some passages of scripture that help me when I’m in a season of waiting:

I love this passage of scripture from Isaiah 40:31

But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

And another favorite is Romans 12:12

 

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Constant in prayer! That is it! That’s how we wait. Even Tom Petty said, “You take it on faith.” Waiting, like life, really shouldn’t be done alone. What is it you are going through right now? Who can you reach out to for support? Who can wait alongside you in this trial?

I’ll leave you with words of our Father from Hebrews 13:5

            I will never leave you nor forsake you.

You, my friend, are not alone. I sit here waiting with you.