Don’t Waste Your Waiting

Pray

The days are evil, Lord. Division, dissension, and disgust seem to pervade our news feeds and dinner tables. Light of the world, step down into the darkness of 2020. Drive out the discouragement and despair that seems to have overtaken so many, and cause springs of hope and healing to well up. What we need from you, simply put, is a miracle. Please, Lord. Give us a miracle. In Jesus’s Name. Amen.

Read

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with^[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with^[b] the Holy Spirit.” Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Acts 1:1-11

Reflect

This morning, my alarm went off at 5:30, and I scrambled for my phone so I could press “dismiss” before Katy Perry’s “Roar” woke the sleeping child beside me. (My daughter and I are sharing a room as we quarantine at my parents’ house. My husband just returned from a cross-country trip, and I felt it prudent to take a week to make sure—though how can one truly be sure?—that he did not bring The Virus home with him.)

I turned the coffee pot on and tiptoed to the living room, plugging in the lights on the Christmas tree and settling onto the sofa with my current stack of books: my Bible, Grasping God’s Word, Dopesick (a book I’m reading about the opiate epidemic in southwest Virginia), and my journal.

I’m getting a head start on my 2021 Bible in a Year reading plan—this is the one I love most and will be using (again) in the year to come. As I read Acts 1 this morning, I remembered my pastor’s sermon from last Sunday, when he pointed out that, while waiting is exhausting, and no one enjoys waiting, there is actually so much God wants to do in our seasons of waiting. He made points like, “Waiting is Watching,” and, “God does so much in the waiting room,” and, “Waiting is Expecting.” I’ve been carrying that word in my heart all week, looking for ways that God wants to use my season of waiting. I even wore a T-shirt to remind me that, “In Our Waiting, God is Working.”

Here’s what I caught during my reading this morning:

Luke reports in Acts that Jesus said to his disciples, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority [to restore the kingdom of God]. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Elsewhere, Matthew elaborated on what Jesus said:

“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”

After he said these things, Luke reports that Jesus “was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” (Acts 1:9). This is the Ascension, the Big Moment when Jesus handed his disciples the Great Commission (Go. Make disciples. Baptize. Teach.) and then left. Soon, he would send his Holy Spirit to embolden and empower them. But for now, there they stood, “looking intently up into the sky as he was going…”

The remaining disciples were at risk of wasting their waiting.

But thank God for angels!

“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

The disciples had been given their marching orders. Yet there they stood, looking up at the sky, wondering, “What now?” when what they should have been doing was getting busy with the work of teaching, preaching, baptizing, and discipling.

I wonder how much of my waiting I’ve already wasted?

My pastor pointed out that, for those of us who are in Christ, Advent is not about preparing for the birth of Christ, but rather preparing for the return of Christ.

This was not news to me. Yet it hit me as if I was hearing it for the first time. When is the last time I considered the return of Christ?! I confess that I do not go about my life with thoughts of Christ’s imminent return in mind.

But I should.

Because he is coming. In fact, I expect that he is coming sooner than we think. And what I do not want—what I absolutely do not want—is for him to come and find me wasting my waiting.

So what does this look like? What does it mean, practically speaking?

First, it means I commit to being a woman of constant prayer. Prayer in the morning, prayer as I wash dishes and fold laundry, prayer as I pick up groceries, prayer with my children, prayer for my husband, prayer for my friends and family members who are walking in darkness to see a great light. Prayer for the sick, prayer for the un/underemployed, prayer for our nation, prayer for the vulnerable, prayer for the powerful, and everyone in between.

Second, it means I commit to instilling in my children a pursuit of the kingdom of God. I already do this—at least, I try to. But my efforts have a fresh urgency now, a new intention as I interact with them. I want to point to Jesus and the ways his kingdom is better than any other kingdom. I want them to know Jesus is alive and attentive to their deepest needs. I want them to know that Jesus loves them and they are his beloved. I want them to discover who they are in the light of who he is.

Third, it means I ask God throughout the day, “How do you want to use this day?” A conversation with a parent on the playground? A kind word to the woman who brings my grocery order to the van? Repentance and a restorative conversation when I’ve lost my temper with my child? Picking up garbage as an act of worship? Serving my parents? Playing with my children? Dropping a meal off to a struggling family? Calling a lonely friend? Writing a note of encouragement?

Fourth, it means prioritizing time alone with God studying scripture and paying attention to what God is saying to me. When that alarm goes off, and that bed feels so cozy, is the sweetness of God’s word and fellowship with the Holy Spirit enough to get me up and moving toward the pages of my open Bible?

We’re heading into a new year. I feel an urgency to make the most of the time I have left on earth. I feel compelled to not waste my waiting—˙however long that waiting may last.

Care to join me?

Apply

What comes to mind when you consider Christ’s return? What might you do differently if you knew Christ would come back a week from now?