The incident happened during one of my church’s recent choir rehearsals, and it made me think about the importance and misunderstood beauty of life’s pauses … and even God’s silence.

There is no music in rests, but they are a crucial part of any song. Any musician knows it: Composers create the rests in music as an intrinsic and valuable part of each piece. By adding dramatic pauses, great composers elevate the quality of any masterpiece. No, there is indeed no music in a rest, but it nevertheless creates music; therefore, when performers slur over or omit the designed pauses in a music score, they crush the melody as it was intended by its creator.

Everyone experiences times when life’s music is broken off by a long “rest.” Times of waiting. Times when it seems like nothing is happening. Times when it feels like God has forgotten us.

To me, personally, when it comes to life’s “rests,” I am naturally tempted to act as that one individual who lifts up her voice when the music is supposed to come to a pause.

“Hurry up, already.”

“Why is nothing happening?”

“Let me do something!”

“Oops, my bad. I should have paused.”

Yes — I have hurried up the music and sped up the tempo many times before. I have been impatient and dismayed at life’s rests. Through the years, however, I have become increasingly aware of God’s hand during those periods of seeming nothingness. We may not understand the silence nor see the growth, but He is nonetheless at work.

Farmers also know this concept. They prepare the soil, plant the seeds, and look at their bare fields for weeks or months, before spotting the first sprouts. They know it’s time for earth to do the growth. It’s time to rest in the assurance that the harvest will come. You will certainly never see a farmer dig up the seed to make sure it is growing properly. They know better — it is!

Patience and trust. Farmers know the concept too well. We must learn from them and not meddle when God calls us to simply wait and trust, and understand that God’s silence does not mean He is not near.

Late British evangelist and author Dr. George Campbell Morgan said it best: “Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given.”

In our impatience and pride, we often think nothing is happening unless we are doing something. And so, we speed up the tempo, fail to pause before speaking, or get our hands moving when we are called to be still.
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As we do so, we fail to understand that God designed the “rest” for a reason. It’s not our turn to do anything. Yet we must remember that the music is not over. He is still holding the baton and knows when to call us to sing again. And sometimes, wonder of wonders! Those dreadful “rests” come just before the climax of life’s music score.

This article was originally published in Patricia’s Column for The Atlanta Journal Constitution on Saturday – May 26, 2018.

The post The Waiting Game – NOT Your Turn {The Atlanta Journal Constitution} appeared first on Soaring With Him Ministries.

“Fortunately”, I thought, “I don’t have to wait for an entire pot of java to brew”. Several years ago, I discovered the marvel of one-cup coffee machines.

Thank you, Lord.

I hit the power button and waited for the three lights to announce that the machine was ready to brew. I was irritated that it took a whole minute for the welcoming blue lights to start blinking and another 30 seconds to brew my morning delight.

“Give it to me now!” I thought to myself.

That’s when it dawned on me: Good grief! My ability to wait has certainly changed since I moved to America.

I remember the shock I experienced on my first American dining experience eighteen years ago.

My husband picked me up at the airport and we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. The waiter was at our table in 30 seconds. We were served in 10 minutes. The bill was delivered while our food was still hot on the plates.

I felt rushed. Surprised. Outraged, almost. I was used to the Brazilian way, where dining is an event to be savored, enjoyed, relished. We take our time. We talk a lot. Eat a lot.

Seize the moment.

Rushing isn’t confined to the United States of America, though. My once laid-back Brazil has also quickly morphed into a fast-paced, impatient society in the past decade.

Rushing is not the American way. It’s the millennium way. We want it and we want it now. We rush success, we rush intimacy and, invariably, we rush God.

The problem with the concept is in the very nature of God.

God is patient. He can’t be rushed. He does not believe in instant anything. Rather, He believes in process. It takes time to listen to Him. It takes effort and time to know Him.

And, in my experience, He certainly never seems to be in a hurry to deliver His promises.

Waiting is a difficult task. Depending on your personality, it’s nearly impossible. If you are a go-getter like me, it probably kills you not being able to control the timing and outcome of your projects and dreams.

Waiting on true love. Waiting on that promotion. Waiting to conceive. It stinks, really.

Our flesh screams: “Hurry up with the lesson, already. Just tell me what I need to learn. I’m ready to move on!” However, I believe that the reason for the waiting is often beyond our realm of understanding.

Because it’s really not just about us.

In retrospective, I realize that I have often waited on something because the people involved in my prayer request were not ready. Or the situation wasn’t ready. Or I wasn’t ready.  I also realize how God has used the time I waited to strengthen me. Mature me. Change me. Change others around me.

Indeed, when we fully grasp that God is a good Father, and, as such, He seeks to make us better people…When we realize that the process of waiting is one of His tools to accomplish just that, we stop expecting Him to act as a one-cup coffee machine.

We understand that the rewards of a life of trust far surpass the gifts we seek. Better yet, we realize that, as long as we listen and obey, He never fails us and always delivers on time.

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