May 30 ~ Psalm 40:1
I waited and waited and waited for God.
At last he looked; finally he listened.
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
Two years ago, my husband and I attended a James Taylor concert in North Little Rock. Believe it or not, I discovered there are people who don’t know who James Taylor is… so if you are one of these folks, James Taylor is an international icon in the world of pop music. This singer-songwriter’s albums were incredibly popular when my husband and I were dating and attending college… and he still has a world-wide following today. Such notable hits as “Fire and Rain,” “Mexico,” Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend,” and “Copper Line” have stood the test of time and are still sung and widely recognized today.
What is incredible to me is that we had never attended one of James Taylor’s concerts until two years ago. We were able to obtain second-row seats on the floor with a birds-eye view of Taylor and the band. We sat next to veteran attendees of James Taylor’s concerts who told us, “He will sign autographs during intermission.”
We found this hard to believe, but the couple next to us had their items and a Sharpie® marker ready to go. So we started wondering… “What could we ask him to sign?” We had not brought any album covers… or a magazine like our seat neighbors. We had nothing. Then it hit me… I could have him sign the denim jean jacket I was wearing. I had a waterproof black marker in my purse. I would take off my jacket during intermission and see if James Taylor would sign it.
When the break came, I walked to the front of the stage and stood next to the man who had been sitting next to us. We were standing almost dead-center in front. James Taylor came out and started at one end of the stage, signing all sorts of items as he made his way toward us. But the time was short, and the crowd was huge. I convinced myself long before he made it near us that we would not be successful. Surely James would say, “That’s it, guys! I have a concert to perform,” and he would dismiss us. But he kept signing, and as he neared us, my very tall seat-neighbor grabbed my jacket and put it with his magazine and handed them to the performer.
James Taylor took my marker and my jacket and looked at me with a shrug and a grimace as if to say, “I’m not sure how I’m going to do this.” Then he crooked one knee, knelt, and placed the back yoke of my jacket across his leg…and signed his name. James Taylor had looked at last… and he had “listened”… and now I am the proud owner of a jacket with his signature!
Now I in no way compare James Taylor to God. But how many times have you been “in line” so to speak… trying to get God’s attention… waiting… and waiting… and waiting? And just about the time you were ready to give up… just when you felt like God was simply not noticing you… He answered! What is the take-away from this? Keep praying! Keep asking God… and believing He sees and hears you! I know it seems like He will never answer. I know you feel like things won’t ever change. But that is simply not how God operates!
Will God respond on our time-table… and exactly as we expect? Possibly… but most likely, the schedule will be totally different… and the outcome may be very dissimilar to what we wanted. But I assure you, everything will be perfect. Last Christmas, as I prayed for my grandmother, I begged God to let her go “home” for Christmas… to be in heaven where she longed to see Him and her friends and family members who preceded her. She was tired, sick, and so weary. Christmas came and went… and my grandmother lived. Then a dear friend and tablemate died, and my grandmother sobbed uncontrollably and asked, “Why not me? Why not me?”… and again, I asked, “LORD, why not her?” And then one morning in early March, the nurse called to say, “We cannot wake Mrs. Polly.” A little more than 36 hours later, she was “home.”
Now I see that God afforded all of us a happy Christmas holiday with my grandmother… and with our other family members, including my little nephews and niece who are just beginning to understand what Christmas is about. I see that God chose a time for my grandmother to die when there were not a million other things that I needed to do… a time when I could focus on all of the things that must be attended to when someone dies. I don’t have room in this devotional to share all of the ways God orchestrated things perfectly for that single event. While the death of a dear loved one is significant, it is still one single event in a world of zillions of occurrences that God choreographs every minute of every day!
Had I given up and sat down before James Taylor got to me in the line… or had he truly stopped signing autographs and returned to the second act (as a grumbling crowd persuaded him to do at one point)… the world would not have come to an end. But when we give up on God before He answers, we truly miss out on some incredible blessings. When we fail to yield to His timetable and exercise patience, we may miss some of the subtle brushstrokes in His painting of our lives… and that would truly be a shame.
Keep waiting… and waiting… and waiting. God does see you… He is listening… and He will answer. Make sure you stick around to hear what He has to say!
©2013 Debbie Robus
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