Steady // Ready

Waiting.
Waiting for Christmas morning.
Waiting for baby.
Waiting for springtime.
Waiting for Saturday.
Waiting for a homecoming
Waiting for a green light.
Waiting for a promise.
Waiting.

I’ve often found joy in waiting. It’s why Christmas Eve has always been my favorite day. But, I’ve also felt such agony in waiting. Like me, you’ve probably waited for something for so long that you begin to lose hope. Waiting can be painful, can’t it? It has a way of grinding us down little by little until we feel so weak we can’t even remember what we are waiting for. Waiting has a way of eroding our joy, our faith, and even ourselves. We become weighed down by the emptiness of elongated expectation. By the fatigue of constant anticipation. By the doubt-filled chasm of waiting…and waiting…and waiting…and waiting even more. It wears on us so much so that in a season of waiting we wrongfully dismiss it as a waste.

Waiting is not a waste.
However, waiting without purpose is.

Waiting for baby.
Waiting for a green light.
Waiting for a promise.
Waiting for the Messiah to be born in Bethlehem.

All tension-filled moments of waiting…but with great PURPOSE.

Don’t get me wrong – I understand how waiting can painfully feel like it has no purpose at all other than to torture you and cause you to question everything. That’s how it feels. But our feelings are not always reality.

We wrongfully have made waiting a period where we wish away time. But waiting is actually when that very time has been greatly ordained to stretch, reform, and purpose us. 

So, what’s the real definition of waiting?

“To remain in readiness for some purpose.”

The wait is not a waste if we can manage to remain steady and ready – full of purpose and willing to be shaped by his timing and not crushed by it.

Today, as I rejoice in the greatest waiting that the earth has known, I am choosing to also rejoice in the hardest season of waiting that my heart has known so far: the steadfast remaining in readiness for a purpose. 

Many years ago, an important promise made in the Garden set the waiting in motion; a promise of victory…of absolution…of the Messiah. For thousands of years, God’s people waited. They too grew weary, they too lost hope, they too often thought it a waste. But at just the right time, that promise was fulfilled. God came to be with His people in the most intimate of ways, bringing equal parts value and hope to every person. And suddenly the truth was realized: to wait with a purpose is never a waste. Their waiting was not a waste for there was a greater purpose buried beneath their weary anticipation. There was more to be gained than ever was lost.

The wait was worth it then.

And it’s still worth it today.  

May we each remain steady and ready as we wait with purpose. 

| Merry Christmas and thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! |