Waiting is hard and in this fast-paced world, it is very easy to become accustomed to instant gratification. Everything is at our fingertips at a moments notice. But we do have to wait sometimes. In a line up at the grocery store. On hold during a telephone call. Plane delays. Sailing waits at the ferry terminal (for us Vancouver Islanders). Waiting for the cookies to come out of the oven. Sitting through commercials on TV (am I dating myself?). Fishing. There are many reasons we have to wait and the amount of waiting we do is equally variable. But is there a measure for how much waiting is acceptable or not? Let me give you an example…
Recently, Nathan, Keely and I went to the Passport Office to renew our passports. We arrived and waited in line to check in at reception and receive our letter/number combination that would be called when it was our turn. After waiting a reasonable (in my opinion) 10 minutes, the customer service agent reviewed our documents, gave us our number and apologetically informed us it would be 1 1/2 to 2 hours to wait. We had come prepared for this possibility and willingly sat down. Luckily a food court and bathrooms were near by and we were able to take turns getting a snack within the first 30 minutes of our arrival. Then we all settled in to wait the rest of the time in the waiting area together. It was important to ensure we be there and ready in case they called our number. If we accidentally missed it, we would have to re-check-in and start the wait all over again.
In the first hour and a half we noted that there didn’t seem to be a pattern to the number/letter combos that were being called up. We also noted varying attitudes and expressions by other folks waiting in the waiting area. It was a strange display of stoic, sad, and tired mixed with increasing frustration, tension and anxiety. Parents entertained bored children and many people were transfixed on their mobile phones.
Admittedly, at around 2 hours I too, became a little agitated. I sighed under my breath. I studied the number board with great determination to try and predict how much longer we would have to wait. Keely sat beside me, head on my shoulder, halfway between napping and playing a game on her phone. Nathan was studying for his Greek course. I had hope. It had been 2 hours…surely we would be soon. I mustered up an extra sliver of patience and quietly waited.
At about 2 hours and 30 minutes I was started to become unravelled. I whispered some complaint. Nathan gave me an encouraging smile and muttered something about some verse he was studying. Keely had begun asking, “how much longer?” with greater intensity. I could feel frustration begin to boil. At quite a loss for what to do next, I opened the Bible app on my phone, and started reading Philippians – the book I am studying with a group of women from my church. It wasn’t long before I came upon Philippians 2:14, “do all things without grumbling or disputing.” That gave me pause, and I considered an earlier verse, Philippians 2:3, “do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
I looked around and realized there were a lot of people here, and I didn’t know anything about them! I didn’t know why they were here, what their stories were, why they were waiting, what kind of day the employees were having and what was going on in their lives. I was just focused on my desire to get the passports finished and get out enjoy some of the sunshine that had been so rare in the last couple months. But I was reminded of Christ, and His example of humility. That “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men…he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2: 6-8).
God, in His great and unfathomable love for us, is more patient than we can ever comprehend. Enduring our ignorance and rebellion, God is patient with us, so that all whom He has called, can hear His words, Repent, and Believe in the saving work of Jesus Christ.
“The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
In that moment I was humbled. Here we were waiting to get our passports processed SO THAT we could move to California for Nathan to complete his Seminary training and commit our lives to serving the Lord in Ministry together – and I was irritated that I had to wait! How long did the Lord wait for me to repent and believe? 36 YEARS. I could certainly wait a few hours with a calm and gentle spirit.
I was thankful to God in that moment. It was a little lesson in patience and humility. Ultimately we waited almost 4 hours. Perhaps a bit long, but in light of eternity, it is a blink of an eye that brings us one step closer to our move to California, and for me, a glimpse at the incredible Grace we are given in Christ.
Gratitude
We have been blessed this week with 2 very generous donations for our Garage Sale! Below is a photo of a mountain around our dining room table from one of the donations. The other donation is large furniture, so we can’t even pick it up yet! It is very exciting and we know these donations will help make our garage sale a huge success. While we have a couple possibilities, we are still looking for a place to hold the sale, preferably with little to no cost and with a covered area to keep us out of the spring west coast weather.
There is just 4 weeks left to our deadline! We hope to be close to our $40,000 goal by the end of March, in order to apply for our Student Visa’s. We are about a quarter of the way!! Donations can be made for our Garage Sale and to our Bottle Drive – we can pick up! You can view and donate on our Gofundme Page here or to us directly. Contact us here. Thank you for your prayers!
Faithful 