Wait For It

Reading my Lenten devotional this morning, the author wrote powerfully and honestly about suffering, being in the midst of suffering:  "Lent is an opportunity to recognize that Jesus will return to set all things right, but he hasn't yet.  In the midst of suffering it is terrifying to feel the pain, tell the story, ask God for help and wait for it."  Please read those words again, put yourself in that place - we've all been there to some degree.  It can be a terrifying place to be!  No end in sight, just the place of suffering, of crying out to God, unanswered questions of "Why?" and "How long?".  We know that Jesus himself asked those questions in his own unimaginable suffering.  He is fully acquainted with our grief and suffering:  

He was despised and rejected by men;

a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.  (Isaiah 53:3-5)

Look once again at the quote from the devotional, it ends with the words, "wait for it".  That's what it means to be a follower of Christ.  We can wait because we have hope.  We can ask the unanswered questions of the one who holds all the answers. We can hold on to God's promises because they are sure and true.  We can sit in our places of suffering and know that we are not alone; we have one who is closer than a brother - closer than our very breath - who knows the depths of our pain and suffering. He knows our fears.  We can say, with Paul, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.  (2 Timothy 1:12)   

I have seen time and time again how tenderly, lovingly and even reverently, Jesus ministers to his hurting and suffering children.  As a prayer minister, I'm constantly awed by Jesus and the ways he is with someone in their time of pain.  I often feel as if I'm standing on holy ground - to be allowed to share in the intimacy of Jesus' presence and ministrations to a suffering child of God.

Wait for it.  Wait on the Lord.  He is always faithful, always near.  His promise is that we will be renewed, restored and revived.  Even more than that:  they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

We are just days away from our Easter celebrations:  the glory, the beauty, the hallelujahs.  But we must go through these days of remembering the suffering and passion of our Lord.  Wait for it.  The light will burst forth.  Easter is coming.  The darkness and suffering of Good Friday is not the end of the story.

Wait for it!

2012 Lenten Devotional from Trinity School of Ministry  http://www.tsm.edu/