So tame my flesh and fix my eyes A tethered mind freed from the lies

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,

And in His word I do hope.

My soul waits for the Lord

More than those who watch for the morning—

Yes, more than those who watch for the morning. Psalm 130:5-6

Chris’s sermon yesterday was about waiting.  After Jesus gave His disciples their task to Go and make disciples unto the end of the earth, He told them one more thing before He ascended: Wait.  Go to Jerusalem and wait.

And they gathered around Him and asked: Now, LORD?  Is this the big kingdom thing?  What we have been waiting for?  Now?

And Jesus answered: It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power.

And a cloud received Him out of their sight.

Drats.  Is that all the answer I get?  Silence?

Not waiting is pretty much the clearest indicator of sin, in the classic sense of the word: not understanding the There is a God and I am not He sort of sin.    The I know-better-than-God sin thing that got Adam and Eve in the garden, that got Abraham an awkward son, Ishmael; that even tangled up old Judas who was not liking the path Jesus was taking towards this Kingdom stuff.  Shaking our list in His face of the way things need to be.

And the Psalmist knows all about that waiting for the dawn thing.  Such a very clear metaphor to help us understand our helplessness.  The long night of waiting in a hospital parking lot.  Pacing back and forth with a colicky baby.  Camping on the top of Seven Falls in an unexpected rainstorm.  Driving across Texas with nothing but country music to pass the time.  Watching a restless poppa who is prone to wander.  Tossing back and forth with an achy problem that only grows more complicated.  There is not one single thing we can do to rush it along to that moment when at last the glint of gold bursts through the darkness. 

But there is that sweet spot of release.  When we at last accept the tick tock rotation of the earth. Rest.  There is a God and I am not He.

 So waiting is a gift to wrestle through this question: Not my will but Yours be done.  And one of Ryan’s songs touched on this idea, not only am I to wait, but I am to worship.  I am to acknowledge He is God.  And worthy to know the times and seasons, which are under His power.  

Selah.