The Journey Toward Waiting WellSample

Remember the game Twister? You and some friends take turns spinning a colorful spinner that determines where you must move your arms or legs. It’s a jumble of bodies contorting in a haphazard fashion to see who can hold their stance the longest. Not one of those positions is one in which we would like to remain for an extended period. The longer the game goes on, the more difficult it becomes to hang on before bodies begin collapsing.

Waiting can feel like a long game of Twister.

What can we do in the midst of the torques, the pivots, the uncomfortable turns, and the seasons we are required to hold steady longer than we can bear?

Pray for God to hear and respond.

Even when He feels far away, David pleads for God to listen and answer. Oh, he could rely on himself, but David knows where that leads. Even when he does not get an answer for an extended period, the man still prays. There is no other place to run and no better source for help in spite of time dragging on.

Notice what David requests. He doesn’t ask for God to fix his problems or to take out his enemies. Instead, he seeks clarity to see God in the middle of the dark.

“Lighten the eyes of my faith to behold your face in the pitch-like darkness” Psalm 13:3

Wait. How does seeing God make the unendurable endurable? The sun might be shining, but from where he sat, everything was hazy and dark. David’s was an uncharted wandering, brimming with isolation and enemies attacking from multiple fronts. David fears for his very life, but he recognizes that focusing on the problems and the darkness surrounding him only keeps him in the same not-so-good place without solutions. What he needs more than anything is to see differently. He asks God to give sight to his faith so that he can keep his focus on the One that really matters.

When it feels like God is not speaking, pray anyway. Ask for God to hear you and respond to your prayer. And when you can’t find your way through the darkness in your situation, ask for eyes that can keep sight of God in the midst of the blackness in the journey, for He will give you what you need.