A Theology of Waiting: Day Three

What am I learning today? That whenever I try to slow down and accomplish some devotion and time spent in waiting, the things of life try to speed me up. I know that there is spiritual "warfare" or whatever going on, but it feels weird to say the devil is trying to ruin things. But I guess that could be said.

This morning, I had an early teacher's meeting. So I planned to get up at 5:00, spend a half hour on the Advent passage, then go to the gym for a half hour. Gideon spoiled those plans with his fourth or fifth ear infection, I've lost count. He woke at 3:56 and kept me awake until about 5:00. At that point, I decided that I would sleep in until 6:00, then do my devotions during my prep period at school and go to the gym after school.

Then Courtney called me during the beginning of my prep period, informing me that I needed to go get medicine for Gideon and take it to the other side of Goshen this morning. I'm not happy about that, because it means my devotional time will have to get moved again. But I decided to say no to moving my time with You Lord. So, although it is a little briefer here, I am committed to fitting it in.

Psalm 18

I find it interesting that in the middle of Advent, which is about waiting, that we find a psalm in which the cry is answered and God "parted the heavens and came down." I mean, when I think about waiting, I think in large quantities of time. I guess, I don't think of it as something that is fairly immediately answered, like within 4 days of the start of Advent we're already at God coming down.

But it does get back at the point that I uncovered yesterday during my study time, that obedience is part of waiting. And the act of obedience at that, because in this psalm, God comes down and rewards the psalmist of the basis of "the cleanness of my hands." Based on the righteous acts he has performed or the unrighteous things that have been left undone, God's presence has come to the author in a saving way. And this psalm is also filled with mighty images, exposing the foundations of the earth and laying the seas bare and all. So God comes down in a mighty way to save those who wait.

Maybe that is why this is here. To remember that we are waiting in hope. That what we wait for will really happen. That we don't have to be waiting in vain, in despair, but instead with expectancy.

I know that we all hate formulas, so what I'm learning may be best expressed this way:

Biblical waiting is a combination, in some fashion of : crying, repentance, obedience, and hope.

Sounds like an Advent teaching series just lying in wait!