Waiting Is Not Wasted Time

I’ll never forget the look on the man’s face at the store as he scanned my items and casually asked me my due date. It was obvious the time was near, but he gave a look of horror as if I’d give birth right then and there on the store’s floor when I answered, “Four days ago.”

That was with my first daughter; today is my due date with my fourth daughter, though of course, I’m writing this weeks in advance. I could possibly have had her by today, but it’s not likely; my babies love to make me wait. So it’s probable that this little one will also make me play the waiting game I’m all too familiar with and not very fond of. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “How much of human life is lost in waiting,” but I disagree. As much as I dislike waiting when I’m in the midst of it, isn’t it in fact not a loss of the human experience but an integral part of it? Seasons of waiting are not a curse but a gift. Waiting is not wasted time. It is an experience that makes us who we are, reminds us who we are not, and implores us to anticipate what we will one day be.

Waiting Makes Us Who We Are

And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

James 1:4

Someone once told me the hardest part of endurance is time. That seems obvious enough, but if you really stop to think about it, that really is the hardest part! As with waiting for a baby, seasons of waiting get more and more uncomfortable every day, and we begin to truly identify with the psalmist who cries out, “How long, O Lord?!”  Trials that overstay their welcome, drag on, and have no end in sight can feel insufferable with each day it’s left unresolved. 

Yet the Bible actually reminds us that even in those seasons of waiting and patiently enduring, perhaps especially in those seasons, God refines us and makes us look more like Him. Our seasons of waiting are often His seasons of growing us. Without time and patience, the seedling can never mature into an oak tree. Without time and waiting, the newborn will never mature into an adult. Without time and endurance, we can never mature into the person God wants us to be. Waiting is part of the human experience precisely because it makes us who we are because as Romans 5:3-4 reminds us: “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character.” 

Waiting Causes Us To Recognize Who We Are Not

O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.

Psalm 39:4-5, 7

Waiting for a baby to come can at times be frustrating because it forces me to realize I have very little control over the situation (particularly since I’ve chosen natural births). I have tried all the interventions to try to kickstart labor naturally, but all the spicy food, raspberry leaf tea, and walking haven’t convinced these babies of mine to come any earlier. I have realized any control I believe I have is an illusion.

And so it is in other seasons of waiting. We live with the illusion of control as if we were gods of our own lives, but seasons of waiting and want force us to recognize that we actually have very little control. That realization may cause fear, but we don’t have to be fearful because we have a God we can depend on. We have a God who is sovereign over all things, who is all-powerful, completely good, and totally trustworthy. Our seasons of waiting serve as reminders that He is God and we are not. After all, we make pretty pitiful gods.

Waiting Reminds Us To Anticipate What We Will Be

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you… In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials…

1 Peter 1:3-4, 6

I like to joke that God must have made the end of pregnancy so uncomfortable that it brings us to the point where we’re willing to go through anything – even giving birth – to get that baby out. In pregnancy, we anticipate the end of the discomfort of pregnancy and the end of waiting, but even more so, we anticipate the joy of a new beginning and a new reality. Our seasons of waiting can easily become focused on that season coming to an end, but what if instead of just wanting a season of waiting to be over, we allowed it to stir up an eager expectation for something new and eternal? 

Some seasons of waiting may never see an earthly fulfillment. The season of waiting for a husband may continue all your life. The season of waiting for healing may never end in your life here. As my family member experienced last year, even waiting for the new life of a baby may never be fulfilled. There may be seasons of waiting that never end on this earth, and yet, we can still allow these waiting periods – for however long they may be – to create a deeper longing for the eternal hope we have in Jesus. We can anticipate the day when we see our True Husband, Jesus, face to face. We can anticipate the day when our bodies will be restored and there will be no more pain. We can anticipate meeting the babies that were held in our bodies but not in our arms. 

Waiting Truths

Even though it feels like it sometimes, this season of waiting is not wasted time. God is in the process of maturing me, teaching me to rely on Him for this baby’s life, and reminding me to allow my waiting to point me towards an expectation of what is eternal. 

Sister, your season of waiting is not wasted time and is not a loss of the human experience. God is doing something in the midst of your waiting. If you are currently in a season of waiting and want, cling to these truths:

• God will use your waiting to refine you. He is in the process of making you more like Him. (Romans 5:3-4, 1 Peter 5:10, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Hebrews 12:10-11, James 1:2-4)
• God is a sovereign and good God. You may not have control, but He does. In times when you feel helpless, you can depend on Him. (Psalm 33:20-22, Micah 7:7, Psalm 62:5, Colossians 1:11, Psalm 25:5, Psalm 39:4-7)
• God has promised that one day all things will be made new and right. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, your eternity is secure. You may be waiting for fulfillment here, but take heart that one day there will be complete and total fulfillment, an eternal weight of glory. (2 Corinthians 4:17, James 5:7-8, Romans 8:18, Titus 2:13, Galatians 5:5, Philippians 3:20, Romans 8:23, 1 Peter 1:3-6)