As you probably know, it’s now officially Autumn. Along with many of you, I was in southeastern Ohio yesterday for the church’s family retreat at Seneca Lake. It was beautiful there, wasn’t it? The air was crisp and cool, the sun was warm. The leaves were just beginning to turn. It was one of those gorgeous Fall days that takes some of the sting out of the fact that summer is ending.
That’s one of the things that my wife and I love about Ohio – here there are four distinct seasons. We lived in Dallas, Texas for eight years, and Dallas had two seasons – cold and hot. Aside from that, nothing else much changes. No snow, no leaves turning colors, just cold and hot. And I mean HOT. For instance, just last month in Dallas, the temperature exceeded 100 degrees on 27 out of 31 days. That was a record. It’s so hot in the summer in Dallas that you avoid going outside at all costs – you dash from air conditioned house to air-conditioned car to air-conditioned office. The only thing that moves outside in Dallas in the summer is fire ants.
Then we moved to Vermont. We lived there for five years. Beautiful state, but a slightly different climate. 100 degree temperatures are not a problem in Vermont. 100 inches of snow over the course of a winter are more of a problem. In Vermont, they say you have two seasons – winter, and four months of bad skiing. The summer is beautiful, but very short. It was my favorite week of the year. Spring – well, they refer to that as “mud season”. That’s when all the snow melts. Fall, of course, is gorgeous, but it leads quickly to winter, and once the first snow hits, you don’t see the ground again until May. Forget the ground – you won’t see the fire hydrants again until May.
So, now we’re back in Ohio, hopefully to stay, and we enjoy the four seasons we have here. The reason I bring this up is that our lives also have seasons. Long and short, pleasant and unpleasant. And the important thing about seasons, seasons in the weather and seasons in life, is being prepared, mentally and logistically. If you’re going to survive and thrive, you have to anticipate what the new season is going to bring, you have to know how to prepare yourself. If you’re living in Dallas and it’s May, you’d better be making sure that you’re stocked up on sun block and your air conditioner isn’t low on Freon. If you’re living in Vermont and it’s September, you know it’s time to get your snow blower tuned up and your supply of firewood laid in. You don’t wait until there’s a three-foot blanket of snow on the ground before you call L.L. Bean and order those fleece-lined boots.
This morning, I’m starting a series of four messages on Life Seasons. My goal is to help prepare you for some of the common “seasons” that we all face as we go through life. Like annual changes in the weather, some of these seasons reoccur many times throughout our lives. Some are long, some are short. Some are more enjoyable than others. But the important thing for us is to understand each season and be prepared. Then we’ll be able to survive and thrive, no matter what the weather.
The first season we’ll be looking at is the season of “Waiting.” We tend to think of this season as a delay, an interruption, an unwelcome intermission. We view it about as positively as we view sitting in a doctor’s waiting room reading old National Geographics, or being put on hold. Just cooling our heels. Not accomplishing much. Just sitting tight until enough time has passed so that the thing we are anticipating can become a reality.
Anybody here experiencing this season?
* You may be single and waiting for a mate, waiting for the right guy or girl to come along.
* You may be waiting to finish school, to graduate and get out on your own.
* Waiting for a promotion. Waiting for your business to take off. Waiting to retire.
* Waiting to have children. Or waiting for your kids to be grown and out of the house.
Waiting for ____. You can fill in the blank. Most of us spend quite a bit of time in this season. So why do we dislike it so much? Why do we tend to view it as something negative? Why are we so eager for it to pass? Here’s one reason: because we are dissatisfied with our present circumstances, and we hope that the thing we are waiting for will satisfy us. Because we think that whatever we’re waiting for will make us happy. “Once I get married [or get divorced], once I have kids [or once the kids are out of the house], once I get a new job [or retire] – then things will be different.” But it won’t work. It never does, not in the long run. [Why do people read supermarket tabloids, or People magazine, or watch “Biography” on A&E? Because the enjoy seeing that those people are just as miserable as they are! They’ve gotten to the top and the view stinks.]
Here’s the fallacy with that kind of thinking. Happiness, and joy, and fulfillment, and peace don’t come from our circumstances. So a change in circumstances won’t bring us those things. It may make us feel good for a while. The dissatisfaction may fade for a bit. But in the long term, if we’re expecting any change in circumstances to make us happy and fulfilled, we’re going to be disappointed. Listen to what C.S. Lewis writes in “Mere Christianity”:
“Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy.
“I am not speaking of what would ordinarily be called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in reality. I think everyone knows what I mean. The wife may be a good wife, and the hotels and scenery may have been excellent, and chemistry may be a very interesting job but something has evaded us.”
That’s true, isn’t it? No matter how wonderful the wife is, or how fulfilling the career may be, it never completely satisfies. There’s always something missing. Not only do these things not deliver on their promise, there’s usually also an unexpected cost involved. For example, new babies are a joy and a blessing, but once you get them home from the hospital, you find that it’s not all nursery rhymes and cooing and cute little outfits. It’s also 3 a.m. feedings and colick. So if we expect any change in circumstances to make us happy, we’re inevitably disappointed. And that’s a good thing.
Why? Because God never intended us to find ultimate satisfaction in anyone or anything but Himself. The joy that anything else can give is us partial, incomplete, ultimately unsatisfying, because God wants us to look to Him for our joy and fulfillment. If we did find lasting happiness anywhere else, we’d become satisfied and stop seeking Him. And we’d miss out on the much greater, the eternal, happiness and fulfillment that God desires for us. The other things are just appetizers. God doesn’t want us to fill up on appetizers; He wants us to desire Him.
Now, there are two wrong ways to respond to this disappointment, this revelation, as Lewis points out. The first is to conclude that the problem is with this particular job, or spouse, or church. And that the solution is to get rid of this one and find another. And so you have people cycling through marriages, and careers, and churches, hoping to find the one that will make them happy, becoming more amd more desparate. The other wrong way to become cynical, to say that happiness isn’t really possible. Real fulfillment and joy are just a cruel illusion. But the Christian response, the way of wisdom, when we find that nothing in this world is ultimately and completely satisfying, is to say, “that’s OK.” I know that the limited pleasure I get from this relationship, or this job, or this possession, is designed to point me toward God, so that I can find complete, lasting, unlimited joy and fulfillment in Him.
The first key to thriving in a season of waiting: contentment
So then, what’s the first key to thriving during a season of waiting? Contentment. I’m not talking about giving up, or just making the best of a bad situation. But looking to God as the true source of our life and being satisfied in Him. Not looking to some future event to change our lives; but being happy and fulfilled right now, right here, because happiness and contentment come from God, not our circumstances.
“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” – Philippians 4:11-13 (NIV)
“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’" – Hebrews 13:5 (NIV)
Why should we be content when we’re in a season of waiting? Because we’re looking forward to a change in our circumstances that’s going to make us happy? No. Because we have the strength of God and the provision and of God and the presence of God in our lives right now. And that’s where true joy comes from.
The key to thriving in a season of waiting: seeing the value in it
Another reason we don’t welcome a season of waiting is that we see no value in it. We see it only as an interruption, a delay. It’s a necessary evil, a bridge that has to be crossed to get to where we want to go. It has no value in itself. But we’d be better equipped to thrive during seasons of waiting if we recognized that the waiting itself has great value. Often, a time of waiting is a time of preparation.
* For instance, take pregnancy. Regardless of how much a set of prospective parents is looking forward to having a new baby, It would not be wise to cut short the gestation period. The child needs all of that time to develop. [Plus it also gives mom and dad time to get used to the idea.]
* Business and public life – Some are promoted too early, when they’re not ready.
So, when we’re faced with a season of waiting, the first question we should ask ourselves isn’t “How can I make this as short as possible?” but “How does God want me to make use of this time?” “How can I be preparing for what’s to come?” We need to seek God’s will for the here and now. For instance, if you’re single, and wanting to be married, consider how you can be preparing to be a good husband or wife. Or consider how you can take advantage of opportunities available to you as a single person, such as spending time in volunteer work.
But here’s the key point: even if you can find no practical way to redeem the time, even if the season of waiting seems like nothing more than enforced idleness, it still has value. Because the greatest benefit to a period of waiting is that it teaches us to rely on God’s timing, rather than our own. It gives us the opportunity to trust in his wisdom, and love. It teaches humility. Waiting, combined with trust, produces a stronger faith. And that has great value.
“Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” – Psalm 27:14 (NIV)
“Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. . . . Blessed are all who wait for him!” – Isaiah 30:18 (NIV)
“Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.” – Isaiah 64:4 (NIV)
Why do you think “waiting” and trust are tied so closely together? If God is going to bless us, whey doesn’t He just go ahead and do it? Why does He seem to delight in blessing those who “wait” on Him? Does God just enjoy making us wait, like some petty bureaucrat throwing his weight around? No. “Waiting” is joined together with faith because it’s only when we have to wait for something that we find out how much we really believe that God will provide it. The longer we wait, the more our faith is put to the test and strengthened. It’s easy to trust God when we get whatever we want as soon as we desire it. It’s much more difficult to trust Him when we have to wait for the answers. We tend to focus just on the thing we want, but God highly values our character and our spiritual development, so He’s willing to delay His blessings in order to test and refine our faith. God always has a purpose for our waiting; a purpose that makes the wait worthwhile.
Finally, waiting is beneficial because it helps us to appreciate the value of what we receive. [Example: waiting for toys at Christmas vs. getting whatever we want immediately]. In the same way, it’s easy for us to take God’s blessings for granted. It’s easy for us to forget that every good thing we receive comes from Him. So when we occasionally have to wait, it moves us to prayer. It reminds us of where our blessings come from. And it increases our appreciation and thankfulness when we finally receive what we waited for.
If those are the benefits of a season of waiting, what’s the risk? The risk is that you become so frustrated with the delay that you will do anything, even violate God’s commands, try to force the issue. You think you know what God wants, and so you take matters into your own hands, even to the point of ignoring clear teaching to the contrary. “I can’t wait any longer; I’m sure this is what God wants.” When you do that, you put yourself in opposition to God and risk severe consequences. God’s will includes both the end result and the means used to achieve that result.
[1 Samuel 10:8; 13:8-14]
God’s timing is always best. He loves us and knows what’s best for us. Don’t yield to temptation to take matters into your own hands and disregard God’s will, but trust in Him and obey Him.
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
