Luke 18:6-8

Ever wait for something for a really long time - a husband, children, a promise of family coming to saving faith, dreams unfulfilled? I think most of us can write books on the waiting game. Waiting. If an unjust person (the judge) will act on behalf of a persistent someone, how much more will our Father, who looks on us with compassion, act on our behalf? The thing is
- the Lord's meaning of speedily/quickly/swiftly is way different than ours. 1 Pet 3:8-9 says, "Do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise but is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

Waiting can be so agonizing...especially when it's focused on us, on me. What I've come to realize is that the waiting is never just about me because life is never about me. Yes, of course there are always lessons to be learned. The Lord is always faithful to teach me through trials and waiting, but there's more going on in this world than my little life. Our lives are like tapestries, intertwined within and between each other's lives. Thinking that my waiting is isolated to me is a bit on the proud side as well as selfish.

Ultimately my life's purpose is to glorify Him, and if my waiting accomplishes that, so be it. Who knows, but the Creator, that He's not weaving amazingness together...amazingness in His kingdom is never just for or about me. James says that our trials and testing produce patience. Patience must have its perfect work that we may be 'perfected' and 'complete,' lacking nothing. Crazy how in a world of microwaves, immediate satisfaction, lattes, drive-thrus we get so frustrated when we have to wait at that drive-thru an extra 2 minutes...yet there are people with real problems...men, women, and even children in many places facing physical persecution, and as our reading in Luke says, "cry out day and night to Him." I'm not minimizing our challenges and our pain, but it definitely puts things in perspective a little more.

This still has me thinking about even more...about how much we complain when waiting rather than allowing God to use that...about how we neglect to serve those He's called us to because we're so focused on the pain and disappointment of the now...on how we fail to act with confidence because we think we've missed it...so much I'm still thinking about this morning and so much to be learned.