WAITING. . . ASKING WHAT INSTEAD OF WHY

Waiting isn’t easy.  Anyone who has ever waited knows that. 

We wait all the time:

At traffic lights

To see the doctor

For other people to get ready

For weddings and baby due dates

For meals

Today we are waiting – for THE call to schedule an appointment caused by something of medical concern with our 15 year old granddaughter.  It’s torture.  Even a simple appointment won’t mean the end of our waiting, and we know that.  Lots more waiting lies ahead.

Years ago I remember complaining to a sister in Christ about a personal situation that was wreaking havoc in our family and especially in me personally.  I kept asking, “WHY is this happening to us?”.

My very wise friend corrected me.  She said, “You’re asking the wrong question.  You shouldn’t be asking why, you should be asking WHAT.  WHAT Lord do you want to accomplish, WHAT Lord do you want me to learn, through this situation?”

I always want to know the WHY.  Why would the Lord allow suffering in the lives of His children?  Why a child?  Why do we have to endure car accidents, and house fires, and the destruction of natural disaster?  Why disease, pain, suffering?  Doesn’t faith in Jesus give us some kind of supernatural “insurance”?

No, it doesn’t.  Oh, to be sure there are many things from which we are protected that only heaven will reveal, but while we’re here on this planet, marred by the curse of sin, we should be prepared for trials and suffering.   Jesus said so, “in this world you WILL have tribulation, but be not afraid, for I have overcome the world”. 

As fallen human beings living in a fallen world, believers in Jesus are subject to the same kinds of things as the rest of the human race.  Ah, but what a difference it makes to know that Jesus walks through them with us.  Even the “valley of the shadow of death”.

I’ll be honest, asking WHAT and not WHY doesn’t make the waiting any easier, but it does give some purpose to the waiting – waiting I’d have to do anyway. 

So of what good purpose is waiting – especially this kind of waiting?

WAITING CAUSES ME TO TURN TO THE LORD

You can be sure that THIS morning I didn’t put my quiet time with the Lord off for later.  I spent time in Psalm 17 and took encouragement from David’s words:

Verse 1

Hear, O LORD

Listen to my cry

The word LORD is God’s covenant name and I am His child by virtue of the New Covenant written in the blood of Jesus.  So I KNOW that for Jesus’ sake, the LORD DOES hear and answer my prayers.

v. 6-7  I call on you God, for you WILL answer me; give ear to me and hear my prayer.  Show the wonder of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes.

I already experience the wonder of God’s great love as He brings me the comfort of His presence and the assurance that He has heard!  And what a refuge He is to me from the “foes” of disease, fear, anxiety and all the “what ifs” going through my mind.

For Emma, who knows the Lord as well, I prayed verse 8:

“Keep (her) as the apple of your eye, hide (her) in the shadow of your wings.”

In the gospel of John, chapter 6, verses 67-68, when some of those who had been following Jesus were offended by His teaching and turned away, Jesus turned to the 12 and asked: “You do not want to leave too do you?”, to which Peter replied: “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

When the waiting comes, it is to the Lord that I want to go because there IS no one else who can help the way He can.

WAITING WITH “WHAT” IN MIND INSTEAD OF “WHY” HELPS ME TO REFLECT THE LIKENESS OF JESUS

If my mind is frantically searching for the answer to why the Lord would allow this, I’m more likely to be distracted by my anxiety, fearful of what next, and no help to anyone.  But if my mind is on the “what” – I’m much more likely to think of how I can glorify Jesus. 

I read this in what David says in the last verse of Psalm 17:

“In righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.”

Now it could be that David was referring to what would happen after his death when he would SEE the Lord face to face.

But I think it also has spiritual application.  What I want others to see in me while I’m waiting is NOT fretting, anxiety, and emotional irrationality or hysteria.  What I want them to see is the likeness of Jesus – His peace, His trust in the hand of a sovereign Father, His love, His compassion, His “other” focus, His desire to make the Father known.

I am encouraged through my time with the Lord in David’s psalm but that doesn’t mean for a moment that the waiting is easy, it’s still one of the hardest things we ever have to do.  But when I run to the Lord who is my refuge in times like this, He speaks His truth to my heart, and I am helped.

Psalm 18:1-2

“I love you, O LORD, my strength.

The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.  He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”