During my years at a Bible College in Great Britain, now 40 years ago (gulp!), I took part in a performance group named “Portrait,” with which we went to churches and evangelistic outreach campaigns. The very first sketch we learned was entitled “The Call.” The lights would come up on a person sitting in a comfy chair by a table with a phone and a glass of lemonade. In his monologue, he explained that he was sitting there waiting for “the call” into ministry and how he had to stay put and not do anything so he wouldn’t miss it. Enter person two, who is out of breath from running around helping people. He implores the sitter to get up and help, but he refuses for fear he’d miss what he had been waiting for. Eventually, amid their arguing over sitting versus doing, the phone rings. With bated breath, he answers, listens for a minute to the imaginary voice on the other end, and then slowly holds the receiver out to the other person. “It’s for you,” he says, crestfallen. Fade to black.
The moral of the story? God cannot steer a ship moored to a dock. It has to be on the move for Him to direct it to where He wants it to go. That is the power of productive waiting.
Rewind and freeze to a milestone in Old Testament history. We find it in Joshua 3. After forty years of paying the price for disobedience and wandering around in the hot, dry desert eating manna and quail and drinking water from a rock, the people are finally told they are about to cross the river into the Promised Land. The Call was about to come.
There was just one problem. It was harvest time, and the river was at flood stage – too deep and risky for several hundred thousand people with their cattle and belongings to cross. So they had to wait by the river for a couple of days while God worked upstream and out of sight to lower the water level. The same God who parted the Red Sea with Pharao’s murderous army breathed down their neck was at it again.
But they didn’t just sit on their hands, waiting for The Call to sound so they could arise and walk across. They were given tasks while they were waiting:
Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” (Joshua 3:5)
They had to prepare themselves. There were instructions to listen to, tribes to organize in formations, and belongings to be made ready for a swift crossing.
The power of productive waiting.
Jennifer and I are in a similar position as we wait for God to work upstream to provide for the purchase of Eagles Wings and our transition to Keny later this year. We don’t know when or even quite how, but we know when The Call comes, we must be ready! So we are working on establishing a legal entity there, updating teaching materials, getting our house, finances, and belongings in order for us to leave, and doing research on shipping and work permits. Above all, we are consecrating ourselves: working to make sure that our daily walk with God is strong, any hindrance in our lives is addressed, and we are fully dedicated to what God has for us next.
Productive waiting does not mean running around putzing with things for the sake of being busy.
It begins with listening to the Lord:
And Joshua said to the people of Israel, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God.” (Joshua 3:9)
While He works upstream to make a way for us to get to where He wants us to go, He wants us to follow His directions to get ready. There is no room for passivity in His kingdom economy. Waiting and even stillness are always productive. If they don’t involve activity, they will involve consecration and listening.
We all go through periods of waiting in our walk with God. It may be waiting for an answer to prayer. Or perhaps a new direction in ministry or work. Even seeking the presence of God involves waiting. Moses had to wait 40 days and nights on Mount Sinai for God to show up and give him the Law. Daniel had to wait 21 days for the explanation of a dream while the delivery angel fought with a demon. Jesus’ disciples had to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit was poured out. Paul had to spend 13 years in the desert before he could launch into ministry. All these times of waiting involved consecration, prayer, instruction, and, in some cases, getting ducks in a row.
The takeaway is: Don’t let waiting discourage you. God is working upstream and out of sight to prepare what is next for you. Consecrate yourself afresh by listening to Him and carrying out whatever He gives you to do while you wait. Then, when the moment arrives for a prayer to be answered or a move to be made, you’ll be ready.
I used to think that waiting was like bench-warming while precious time was going by. I learned that it never is. Waiting for God is always productive, and that is what makes it powerful.