On Waiting

Scripture Passage

Psalm 42

{Sermon Text}

Psalms: 42
As a deer longs for flowing streams,
   so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
   for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
   the face of God?
My tears have been my food
   day and night,
while people say to me continually,
   “Where is your God?”
These things I remember,
   as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
   and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
   a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
   and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
   my help and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
   therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
   from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
   at the thunder of your cataracts;
all your waves and your billows
   have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
   and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
I say to God, my rock,
   “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
   because the enemy oppresses me?”
As with a deadly wound in my body,
   my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
   “Where is your God?”
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
   and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
   my help and my God.

The Art Of Waiting

This week I have been reflecting upon waiting. I think waiting is a beautiful thing. Somehow when I think about waiting beauty comes to my mind. There’s something beautiful about waiting. Music is not just sound. Music is a combination of sound and silence. Some musicians say that silence is more important than sound, so sound and silence are combined together and make beautiful music. In the same way, life is both working in waiting and this is the rhythm of life. You cannot just work and work and work. There has to be waiting period. And then you go back to work. So waiting is very much part of our rhythm of life and waiting is a beautiful thing. It’s not just a waste of time. We have to understand the art of waiting because a lot of things happen in our waiting.

In our waiting, we learn to be patient so that we don’t get easily flustered when things did not go as well as want. We wait because we have hope. People who have no hope, they don’t wait. Only people who have hope can wait. And waiting also means that you’re not controlling everything. You just let God control things and you wait, so in waiting there are a lot of beautiful things. So in that sense, waiting is beautiful. When the farmer sows the seeds, sowing the seed is only small part of it. The big part of what farmer has to do is waiting for that seed to grow and produce fruit. That is not his control. It is in God’s control or the control of nature. You have no choice but to wait.

We have to understand waiting quite well. Yesterday as John mentioned, we had our first meeting of young family with babies. I should have brought that picture, it’s so beautiful, so cute on the sofa, about five kids. But there were more than that, more than ten kids, but only five kids sitting there. I should’ve brought it. They gathered together, they talked and the baby’s crying and all that, but it’s not a distraction. It’s just fun. It was so fun that we decided to do it together. We’re going to do it every month and I told them, “Okay, we’ll do it every month. I’ll find a place.” So I have to ask the elders to provide a place. All these parents know what it means to wait for nine months. You have to wait for the baby to be born. So waiting is an essential part of our life, but we think the waiting is a waste. Waiting is  never a waste. But sometimes it feels likes a waste when you got caught in traffic and when you have to wait in a bank or even for coffee, you have to wait. And then sometimes you feel like it’s a waste, but it is not a waste of time. In waiting, a lot of things happen.

You know, I realized that change happens when we wait not when we work. Change happens when we wait. Depending on what attitude you have about waiting, you can come out of waiting as a bigger person or as a smaller person. You can come out as a bitter person who always complains about everything or you can come out as a bigger person who has gratitude, who is thankful and all that.

Why We Wait

One of our KSM members is having surgery. He has cancer. So, today after service I brought him in to my office and I prayed with him and he was smiling and all that. And then after awhile about five minutes of talking, he started crying a little bit. He said sometimes it is difficult when he deals with cancer within himself. But, you know, what is important is focus. “When I have focus, when I start having this clear focus on God, then gratitude came, thanksgiving came, and after that I smile all the time. And my wife always crack jokes now.” So he was smiling and laughing. He’s going to have surgery tomorrow. You can come out of waiting as a bitter person and sour person or you can come out of waiting as a grateful person, the bigger person.

A good example is Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela waited in prison for 27 years. Of course, the last period he stayed home, but most of his time he spent in this prison cell. Twenty seven years is a long time. For 27 years, he was waiting in that small cell. But at the end he came out as a bigger person. When you look at that, that’s Nelson Mandela after 27 years. 27 years changed him. Nelson Mandela became Nelson Mandela because of the 27 years of waiting. He did not become a bitter person. He did not become a hateful person. He came out as a bigger person. I don’t think without that 27 years Nelson Mandela cannot have had such a powerful influence on South Africans, and also the  whole world. Waiting can make somebody beautiful. Waiting can really cultivate a person and change a person. Without waiting there’s no spirituality. Without waiting, you cannot be God’s instrument. If you don’t learn how to wait, you cannot live life successfully, and you cannot be an instrument of God. When God called the Israelites out of Egypt, they had to wait for 40 years before they entered into the promised land.

If we know how to wait, within us, character is built. Once character is built, you become a strong person. Through waiting character is formed. Then no matter what situation you may face, you’ll be able to persevere and overcome it. That character can be built only in waiting. Nothing else. Every person who is successful all went through impossible situations. But through those impossible situations, because they have character to persevere, to overcome, they could get the next level. Most failures, they will stop there. They’ll give up there because they don’t have character to go beyond that. Where is the character built? Through waiting, you can build character.

As you read Psalm 42, you see desperation and despair of this psalm writer. This is what he said: “My tears have been my food day and night”. How difficult it must have been that his tears have become his food day and night. We hear repeated this sentence twice. “Why are you cast down? Oh my soul. And why are you disquieted within me?” He experienced impossible situations and because of that he was depressed. He didn’t know what to do. My friends, in our time, we experience this kind of feeling. Often we feel like there is nothing that we can do to deal with our situations. Challenges are too big and we get depressed and discouraged. We just don’t know what to do and we feel like giving up. And many people, actually indeed they gave up. Today Katie came out, she’s having both radiation therapy and chemotherapy together. She had a good spirit after service. She was in the corridor, and then she said it is hard, but I can handle this.

On Monday, she has to go to have a little hole so that she can have food because of tongue cancer. She cannot eat, but she doesn’t want to do that. After a few days she can also eat again and recover, so she doesn’t want to do that. But she was in such a good spirit. If she didn’t have that character, she would have given up. Like, ‘my goodness I can’t handle this anymore. It’s too difficult, too hard.’ But she never gave up. She had a high spirit. That is the kind of character that we all need. The people who have learned the art of waiting, they don’t give up. We know how to wait. Even when we cannot do anything, we know how to wait. They know the importance of waiting and they know exactly when to wait. Sometimes we have to move.

The Opportunity Of Waiting

Yes, we have to do the work, but sometimes we have to know that this is a time to wait. You don’t go around frantically to solve your problems. Sometimes by doing that you’re making the problem worse. Sometimes you just need to quiet down and wait. These people who know the art of waiting, they know how to wait and when to wait. They know exactly when to wait, and they wait for God to work, for the situation to work out on its own. We have to learn how to calm ourselves down sometimes. Be calm. Be calm, especially when the storm comes, learn to be calm. That’s being cool. When the difficulties come, be calm and don’t worry so much, don’t be wrapped up with fear. Just be calm with confidence. I like this scripture passage so much. “Be still and know that I’m God”. Just be still and know that I’m God. You’re not alone. Be still, I’ll take care of you. Just know that I am God. When we learn the art of waiting, you realize that from deep within hope arises. Hope is not something that you decide. Hope is not something that you decide to have.

If you have hope, you have it. If you don’t have it, you don’t have it. It’s not something that you decide to have or not, but when you acquire the art of waiting, you realize that from deep within hope arises. Even when your situation is hopeless, hope arises within you. A life of waiting is not a passive life. Life of waiting is searching, yearning.

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you. Oh God, my soul thirsts for God, for the Living God. That’s what waiting is. You don’t just passively wait and sit down and do nothing. But in your waiting you search for God, you reach out to God. You promised. You stand on the promise of God. Now you hold onto the promise and ask God, this is what you promised and then you search for God to work in our lives. Life of waiting is beautiful. There’s so much passion, so much desire, so much thirst for the living God. God will pour his living water on your thirsty soul and heart.

So when difficulties arise, don’t be scared. When impossible situations arise to not despair, just learn to wait. Trust in God and our waiting will not be wasted, and our waiting will not disappoint us. This is what St. Paul said: “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Beautiful passage. Practice the art of waiting. Whenever we have no choice but to wait, don’t get frustrated. Use it as an opportunity to cultivate the discipline of waiting with anew.

[Refection Song: In His Time]