Waiting Well

You need to call customer service. So you tap in the number and wait. Then there’s a voice. “Thank you for waiting. Your call is important to us.” You hear those words and you know you’re going to be put on hold. Often, the robot voice will tell you how long the wait time is expected to be.

“The waiting is the hardest part,” sang Tom Petty in his hit song with the Heartbreakers in 1981.

Back then it was certainly true that waiting was hard. Imagine, for example, waiting in the waiting room of the doctor’s office with no smartphone and only the Ladies Home Journal and some two-year-old Sports Illustrated magazines to peruse. You would’ve had no contact with the world beyond that antiseptic, boring room until you were called back to the examination room where you would wait some more, this time without magazines!

No wonder they call us “patients.”

Today, we have multiple entertainment options right at our fingertips to keep us occupied while we wait. But despite all that technology, waiting is still hard. We wait at airports (security lines, boarding lines); we wait in traffic; we wait at the post office; we wait at the bank; we wait for the cable guy; we wait for a human when calling customer service. We wait … and our patience runs thin.

A little planning, however, can make that wait time productive and perhaps even fun. For example, here’s a list of things someone came up with – probably while he or she was waiting to mail a Christmas package at the post office. These ideas could help you endure your wait time while boarding a flight to Chicago to visit grandma over the holidays:

Strike up a conversation with a stranger and learn their story.

Pull out your journal and describe everything you see in the waiting area. This trains you to be observant and exercise your writing chops.

Work through your unread emails. Nobody likes to do this, but it’s a great way to burn an hour or three.

Make that appointment with your dentist or any of those other medical types you dread but need to see. It will make the waiting seem less painful by comparison.

Buy kitschy postcards from the newsstand and write notes to your friends and family and mail them later.

Ask a waiter or flight attendant how their day is going. They will likely have some eye-opening stories to tell!

Skype your parents, grandparents or kids and catch up with them.

These are some great ideas if you have a couple of hours to kill.

Every stage of our lives involves some new form of waiting. When our children are tiny, we wait years for a good night’s sleep. When our children are toddlers, we wait eagerly for the time when they will no longer wear diapers, can take a bath on their own and get dressed by themselves. When our children are teenagers and driving, we often wait anxiously until we hear the front door close and know they’re safely home. And at any stage of life, we can experience waiting for the results of medical tests. This kind of waiting is perhaps the hardest of all. A weekend can seem like an eternity if we’re waiting to find out whether a tumor is malignant or benign.

But what if the wait time is going to be longer – like, maybe, a couple of thousand years?

That’s the dilemma the early church was facing after Jesus’ ascension into heaven (Acts 1:1-11). He had promised to return, and many in the church believed that return was imminent. As time passed, however, and as persecution of Christians intensified, the waiting became the hardest part for the church. In fact, some were beginning to question whether Jesus would return at all.

That’s the situation the writer of 2 Peter addresses. The letter reminds the church that Jesus will, indeed, return as promised to bring justice and abolish evil, ushering in the new creation, and that the way they conduct themselves as they wait for his return will have implications for eternity.

Peter understands that the waiting is the hardest part, but what seems like a long, slow waiting period for Christ’s return is actually a gift from God. The Lord is not slow or tardy, but rather extends his own patience to allow time for people to “come to repentance” (v. 9). The “day of the Lord” is coming like a “thief” and on that day the deeds of all on earth will be “disclosed” as if cleansed by fire (v. 10).

In the interim (even if it’s a long interim), Peter asks, “What sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness?” (v. 11). A new heaven and new earth are coming in which “righteousness is at home” so, what should we be doing while we wait (v. 13)?

The short answer for Peter is that those who follow Christ should begin living the righteous life of the future new creation as though it has already arrived. There will be a period of waiting, but it’s not to be a passive one in which we, like the disciples at the ascension, keep staring up at the sky waiting for the Lord’s arrival (Acts 1:11). Instead, Peter says that there are certain things we should strive to do in the interim.

First, remember the promise of the first Advent. As we celebrate the season of Advent, it’s a chance for us to remember again that God has come to us in person in Christ and, in doing so, God has confirmed the truthfulness of his promises toward us. The Lord for whom we wait is

always true to his word!

Second, pay attention to what it is that masters you. In 2:19, Peter criticizes false teachers for promising freedom while being “slaves of corruption” and then he makes a poignant statement: “People are slaves to whatever masters them.” As we move through the Advent season, that’s a great question to ponder: What is it that masters us? To what have we become a slave? Is it money, sex, work or something else? As Bob Dylan once sang, “It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” Who are you serving?

Third, use your time wisely. Peter urges his readers to “regard the patience of the Lord as salvation” (v. 15). In this interim period as we await the return of Jesus, we have the opportunity to use the time God has given us to share our faith with others. Peter, like the apostle Paul, spent every waking minute looking to share the good news about Jesus with anyone he met.

According to Peter, Paul’s writings may have been hard to understand and were vulnerable to being twisted by the ignorant and the insidious, but they were nonetheless powerful because they were designed to impact others with the gospel (vv. 15-16). Disciples of Jesus recognize that God has given us time to spread the word about Jesus, and we need to use that time wisely. Those conversations we might have with people in the waiting room or on the plane are opportunities to have spiritual conversations as the Spirit leads. As Peter says in his first letter, “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting of the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15).

Are you uncomfortable sharing your faith? Well, remember this: The best things in life are often waiting for you at the exit ramp of your comfort zone.

Yes, the waiting might be the hardest part of being a Christian, but it’s also the most important part. God has given us the tools and the time to bring his good news to the world in anticipation of a Second Advent.

May we wait well.