How to Wait Well in Crisis
Win books! This month, as we celebrate the one-year-birthday of From Recovery to Restoration: 60 Meditations for Finding Peace & Hope in Crisis, I’m giving away four books each week. See above for this week’s books. Enter for a chance to win. To have more chances to win, share about the book more often or share the excerpts on the blog and let me know how many times you shared.
Today’s blog is an excerpt from the devotional. I’ll be sharing excerpts every week. You can continue to share and have chances to win different books each week.
Waiting or Whining?
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
And in his word I hope… Psalm 130:5, ESV
“Why does she get to graduate from PT when she’s only been here for two months, and I’ve been here for six?” My physical therapist responded kindly but firmly, “Not every shoulder surgery is the same. Some people have easier recoveries.” I turned my back to him and stuck out my tongue. Real mature. I was, without a doubt, becoming whiny in my wait to recover.
When we’ve been the victim of a crisis, we can easily turn to victimization as a way of life. Self-help and self-pity may look like the way out of our distress, but they often lead to more whining and less waiting on the Lord. In Psalm 130, David shows us the way out of the whine.
He cries out to the Lord from the depths of despair. His despair in this case is not caused by enemies pursuing him or by the brutal betrayal of King Saul, but by his own sin. David recognizes the dropdown knockout power of his own sin, “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, who could stand?” (Psalm 130:3). He knows the Lord’s forgiveness for his sin is a sure cure for his worst injury.
As we wait for healing from a harmful loss or a painful injury, as we wait for homes to be rebuilt or hearts to be renewed, David teaches us how to wait well:
“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
And in his word I hope;
My soul waits for the Lord,
More than watchmen wait for the morning,
More than watchmen wait for the morning” (Psalm 130:6).
To wait well, we must learn to turn our eyes away from ourselves and toward the Lord. We must become good watchmen for the Lord, seeking him in the darkness, certain that he will come soon, sure that his arrival will bring relief. As Jill Carrattini writes, we have every reason to hope as we wait, for “Christ himself can transform our watching and our waiting, our lives and our deaths, bringing light where death stings, tears discourage, and darkness haunts: the Light has already come!”
When our focus in waiting shifts from recouping losses to recognizing redemption, we see even more reason to hope, “For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption” (Psalm 130:7). Dear friend, as you endure this hard wait, keep watching for the Lord. In him, you will find the help you need for all of your distress.
Prayer
Lord,
We confess that we often become whiny as we wait for recovery. Help us, we pray, to see your plentiful redemption, to seek your forgiveness for our sins. Turn our faces toward you, and help us to see the dawn which has already arrived in our Savior Jesus Christ. In his very near name we ask. Amen.
Further Encouragement
Read Psalm 130.
Listen to “I Will Wait for You” by Shane and Shane https://youtu.be/dwovhY8zNQM.
For Reflection
Have you found yourself moving toward self-pity, or have you noticed yourself whining in your wait for recovery? What has that looked like? Write or say a prayer of confession, and thank God for his mercy.
