Expectant Hope
It’s been a minute, but don’t you worry, I have many things brewing. This summer has exceeded any expectations in literally all the ways I could imagine (good, bad, frustrating, enjoyable, etc.) but the one constant has been God. So, while I process all the things I’m feeling, I wanted to clarify some things about this blog.
It’s called, In the Waiting and if you haven’t read my “About” section you might erroneously think it’s about waiting to get married. It’s not. At all. This isn’t some sort of singleness blog, although I have written (and probably will still) about that a lot. No – this is about reclaiming waiting for good.
We wait for all the things. Our culture tries to lie and tells us life is instantaneous (Uber eats, anyone?!) and in the process we’ve lost the gift of patience and art of waiting. But the reality is – life is full of it. We wait in lines, we wait to grow up, we wait to get married, we wait to hear back from the job we want, we wait to have kids, we wait to give birth, we wait and we wait and we wait. Waiting isn’t passive, or it doesn’t have to be. It’s active. Merriam-Webster defines “wait” like this:
to stay in place of expectation of
to remain stationary in readiness or expectation
to look forward expectantly
to be ready and available
to pause and stop*
The Bible defines it similarly and if we reclaim the word for what it is – we see that waiting is active and expectant.
So instead of living in discontentment as we wait for things, as I was prone to do, this blog is about learning to live actively in the wait – whatever that may look like for you.
More than that, it is about living abundantly and expectantly as we wait for Christ’s return. As a Christian, I believe that we live in the “now and not yet” of the Kingdom of God – in that Christ defeated sin and death on the cross and rose again and we get to live in the freedom of that. But sin is still here and until Jesus comes again, we live in a broken fallen world. But one day, when He returns and calls us home, we get to live gloriously in His presence free from all darkness and sin. Gone will be the tears and the sickness and evil, gone will be any distance we may feel from God, we will live in glorious reunification in His presence forevermore. It’s going to be AMAZING. That’s the ultimate wait.
But again, we don’t live in that waiting expectation by sitting around, hiding, doing nothing! No! We thrive! We live in the things that God has given us. We work hard, we have fun, we’re good stewards, we love abundantly, we give generously, and we wait for His return.
Recently, I’ve been reading Song of Songs, which is a love poem about a bride and a groom. Even though I hate poems and most romance – reading it as a picture of our love for Jesus and His love for us has made it an incredible experience. Jesus calls the Church his bride and He is our bridegroom.
The beginning of chapter three is all about the bride waking up in the middle of the night searching for her bridegroom. The She Reads Truth devotional that went along with it talked about the night before your wedding and the anticipation and longing that comes with that night. Or if you’re single – remember Christmas Eve and how you were full of excitement waiting for the morning of gifts and celebration? That’s what waiting for Jesus to return is like. That’s what this passage is pointing to – us, waiting for Jesus’ return. Andrea Lucado, who wrote this devotional says it like this,
She (the bride in Song of Songs) is looking for one person and on person only: her beloved. She doesn’t get sidetracked or distracted; she knows her heart only beats for one man.
That is my desire and goal for this blog and for my life. To be wholly devoted to Christ as I wait his return. So, whether I am married or unmarried, jobless or with a job, waiting in line at the grocery store or for my frozen pizza to cook, whatever I am doing – I am ultimately waiting for the beautiful day of reunion with my Savior and King. But until then – I want to live well in this waiting period. I want to use my time to encourage and bless others and honor God.
So, it’s not about waiting to be married. It’s not about singleness at all. It’s about Jesus.
* I realize that I didn’t touch pausing and stopping - so this will end up being a two-part series on waiting because I think that aspect of waiting is vital to life and also to our walk with God. So stay tuned for that.
Photo by Bna Ignacio on Unsplash