Waiting is not a theme we necessarily associate with Lent. In fact, waiting is often seen as the exclusive theme of the Advent season as we prepare to celebrate Christ’s first coming and also anticipate his second. During Advent, waiting is a theological reality tied up in God’s grand plan of salvation. It is powerful and unique and filled with the promises of God.
But the kind of waiting we think about during Lent is different. It’s tied to the wilderness, and it’s a waiting that brushes up against some darker themes and harder places. As we contemplate our sin and our need for God we are often brought to the very end of ourselves, and that can often be a very barren place, spiritually speaking. Lent strips away our masks and our coping mechanisms and asks us to be honest about where we are and what we need.
And it asks us to wait on God in the midst of our self-examination.
This is not a bad thing, but it is a difficult thing. God is patient with us, but we are not always patient with him. We often forget that spiritual formation is a lifelong journey, and that sometimes the progress seems slow. But when it seems slow, and we are asked to wait, we often find it is there is he doing his most important work.
“The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.”—Lamentations 3:25 (NRSV)
In our waiting God has the freedom to bring to death any reliance on ourselves so that we might rely only on him. Through it all we need to remember that God is purifying us and calling us back to what is central: his love for us and his desire for us to dwell in that love. In the midst of our waiting we cling even more tightly to the promise that the work God is doing within us both necessary and good, and we trust that through this season we will be drawn closer to Jesus so we can be made more like him.
During Lent we give the Holy Spirit permission to pry our fingers away from anything to which we hold on too tightly, so that we may find ourselves being held by the one who will never let us go.
Just as the sun falls down
Your unfailing love will be found
Just as the sun does rise
Your mercy will answer my cries
More than the watchmen wait
I'll wait for you
Read the rest of the lyrics here.
Questions for Reflection
1) How is your Lenten journey exposing the places in your heart and soul where God is inviting you to deeper trust and deeper surrender? Do you find that difficult? How are you waiting on God through this season?
2) The Psalmist speaks of waiting on God with “our whole being.” What does it mean to wait on God in that way? What parts of ourselves are most resistant to that invitation?
3) Read and reflect on this verse. Let it lead you into prayerful worship and gratitude:
“But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.”—Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV)