We Just Have to Wait!

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!

Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take courage; Wait for the LORD!

Psalm 27:13-14 ESV

This verse crossed my path not once, not twice, but three times - in three different ways - a few days ago. Not one to believe anything happens by chance, I took it as a sign. 

Maybe I'm weird like that, but lots of stranger people do lots of stranger things. 

Because, you see, I am in the same boat as David when he penned that Psalm. Ok, so maybe I'm not hiding out in a cave while armies are trying to find me and kill me violently, but when David says he's waiting for God, expecting to see some goodness, I'm right there with him. 

It strikes me as pretty obvious that we are all living in hard times right now. Even if your life is cushy, the world around us is angry. You can't help but feel the angst. It's marital, it's political, is social... it's everywhere. And maybe, like David, like me, you're hiding out in a cave, hoping the battle passes you by this time. Maybe it will, maybe it won't - that's just life - but what makes David and I (and you?) different from the hoards of angry humans on the planet is that we have this hope, this belief, that there is a God - Jehovah - and that this God is GOOD. In this we are strong. In this, we take courage. 

And in this, we wait. 

The way God does things... well, it's just not totally understandable. Even if we think we see a pattern at times, he has a way of changing things up on us next time, so that we don't get ahead of him. But the character of God, that we can know - that he has plainly revealed to us through scripture and through the incarnation of his Son, the Man, Jesus. And his character is GOOD. 

I like to think of it like this - this time of year, I start stockpiling gifts for my daughters for upcoming birthdays and Christmas. A little here, a little there, things are on clearance sales... and I'm smuggling objects of delight and affection into my home to hide them away for the big days to come. 

My girls know where I hid the presents last year - in the upstairs guest bedroom. But this year, I've hidden them somewhere else, though they don't know where yet. A few days ago I hinted to Leah that I may - or may not - have found the perfect present for her around-the-corner 7th birthday. She and Susie ran off delightedly to check the upstairs bedroom for the alleged gift. (Of COURSE I'm not going to spoil their surprise and delight by letting them find their gifts early, but they don't realize that yet, either.) I sat downstairs chuckling, because the gift is in MY room this time, and of course, they didn't find it, though they had a good time looking. 

I know where God hid his last gifts to me - and they were really good and perfect gifts. And he has very boldly hinted (as only God "hints") that there are more really good and perfect gifts to come. I am running around delightedly checking all the places I know he's used for "hiding" gifts before... nope, nothing there. But I'm still having fun looking. And I imagine he's chuckling because only he knows where he's hidden the gifts this time, and when the exact time is he's going to give them. And in only the way God can be good, this is going to be good. 

So, like I told Leah after she grew a little frustrated looking and not finding her perfect present... "Leah, you just have to wait! It's not time yet." 

Hilary, you just have to wait! It's not time yet. 

Smile. 

So what are you waiting for? We're all waiting for something. The next step, an answer to prayer, a relationship to be restored, healing of any and all kinds, a piece of the puzzle, evidence that God loves you..? All good things. 

That word - goodness - in that verse up there? It really does mean "good things". Good things, goods, prosperity, fairness, beauty, joy, prosperity... goodness. 

All the good that God is and that God has. Goodness. 

If you know the story of King David, you know that he did indeed see the goodness of God in the land of the living. He saw hard things, too, but overwhelming goodness. 

And for eternity... goodness. 

So if life is hard right now - and it is, I'm sure - be comforted, draw strength, take courage. We will see the goodness of God in this land. 

We just have to wait! It's not time yet. :-)