I read a poem the other day that got me thinking about waiting versus acting.
Do not try to save the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create a clearing in the dense forest of your life
and wait there patiently,
until the song that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself to this world so worthy of rescue?
(“Clearing” by Martha Postlewaite)
There is a lot of noise about the need for Christians to be called to action. One campus ministry organization had as their stated vision: “Our vision is to see students and faculty transformed, campuses renewed, and world changers developed.” That’s a tall order, “to change the world.” Today much is wrong with the world, so we often hear of our need to be activists and be engaged. To do this without waiting for God, hearing from him, is detrimental to your spiritual health. When an action takes precedence, we are more likely not to hold back in actions that are void of morality, and eventually they become an end in themselves. We can get carried into stronger and extreme actions and arrive at a place far from the gospel message.
When we act before waiting for God, we often ignore the fact that we are to be like Christ in this world. The church is to reveal the victory of Christ through the same suffering love that he displayed on the cross. This perspective on life is best gained through patiently waiting, which is not a very popular posture today. It appears weak. Yet scripture is filled with the call to wait for the Lord.
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. (Psalm 27:14)
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways when they carry out their wicked schemes. (Psalm 37:7)
I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word, I put my hope. (Psalm 130:5)
Waiting for the Lord is how we obtain the strength to do what he has called us to do:
"Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 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." (Isaiah 40:30-31)
Our strength is renewed as we wait for the Lord and live out faithfully what he has asked us to do in this world for his Glory. The world needs more people like this.
