Anticipation

The great theologian, Tom Petty put it well: “The waiting is the hardest part.”  Ironically, Petty had to wait for that hit song for him and The Heartbreakers to emerge. 

“’The Waiting,’ that was a hard one, “Petty remembered.  “Went on for weeks.  I got the chorus right away. And I had that guitar riff, that really good lick.  Couldn’t get anything else.  I had a really hard time. And I knew it was good, and it just went on endlessly. It was one of those where I really worked on it until I was too tired to go any longer. And I’d get right up and start again and spend the whole day to the point where other people in the house would complain. ‘You’ve been playing that lick for hours.’ Very hard.”

Petty continued, “It’s one that has really survived over the years because it’s so adaptable to so many situations. I even think of that line from time to time. Because I really don’t like waiting. I’m peculiar in that I’m on time, most of the time. I’m very punctual.

“Roger McGuinn swears to me that he told me that line. And maybe he did, but I’m not sure that’s where I got it from. I remember getting it from something I read, that Janis Joplin said, ‘I love being onstage, and everything else is waiting.’  It was about waiting for your dreams and not knowing if they will come true,” Petty said. “I always felt it was an optimistic song.”

Tom Petty didn’t like waiting.  Does anyone like waiting? 

When I fly to the east coast, I try to schedule my flight with a connection in Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.  I always pick the longest line at the grocery store.  I go to the gym at 7pm to hit the crowds.  I never leave early to beat the traffic.  Clearly, I’m kidding. 

I’m not a fan of yellow signal lights.  My wife chides me for always being in a hurry.  ,”It is not a race,” she reminds me. I think, “Those who say it isn’t a race are the ones who aren’t winning!”

But life is filled with pauses and postponements.  Robert Clinton teaches that the stages of faith are:

            Dream

            Decision

            Delay

            Difficulty

            Dead end

            Deliverance

In my experience, the longest-lasting stage tends to be deliverance.  That’s the good news, but the next longest phase is delay.  We spend a ton of time waiting.

The Bible is filled with delays.  Abraham and Sarah waited over ninety years to have a baby.  The Israelites waited four hundred years in slavery.  Moses waited forty years in Midian.  God’s people waited forty years in the desert.  David waited seventeen years after his anointing to fully assume the crown destined to be his.  Jeremiah predicted seventy years in exile.  Jesus waited thirty years to begin his public ministry. 

“What were you doing when the police arrived? The judge asked the defendant. 

“Waiting, sir.”

“For what?”

“For money.”

“Who was supposed to give you the money?”

“The man I was waiting for.”

“Why was he going to give you money?”

“For waiting.”

“Enough of this,” exclaimed the judge.  “What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a waiter.”

We’re all waiters, aren’t we?  When we’re waiting for the waiter, aren’t we the waiter?”

Jesus told his followers to wait:

One day Jesus was eating with them. He gave them a command. "Do not leave Jerusalem," he said. "Wait for the gift my Father promised. You have heard me talk about it. John baptized with water. But in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."—Acts 1:4-5 (NIV)

Here is the question, what are we supposed to do when we’re waiting?

Mandy Hale postulated, “What we are waiting for is not as important as what happens to us while we are waiting. Trust the process.”

What we see the apostles do in response to Jesus call to wait is a list of do’s and don’ts for waiters: 

1.  Don’t wait in the wrong line

Recently I was in a “hurry up and wait” mode at O’Hare airport.  The airport code is “ORD” which is French for unnecessary delay.   Actually, the site was originally a military airport called Orchard Field.  Then it was renamed after World War II flying ace, Edward Henry "Butch" O'Hare, in 1949.   I believe Butch was an hour late for every meeting in his life.  (I had time waiting at the airport to look up the history!) Anyway, my scheduled layover was less than an hour and the trek from gate to gate took over thirty minutes.  When I arrived at my connecting gate, I saw a bunch of folks in line.  The airplane was on the ground but waiting for the current plane to push back from the gate.  We lingered in line.  To our surprise the gate sign suddenly changed to “Springfield.”  Panic struck.  Had we all been waiting in the wrong line for all this time?  One passenger summed it up best, “Where is Springfield and who wants to go there?”

Jesus told his followers to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Waiting on God makes sense.  But some of us wait for everything to be perfect.  Maybe we’re waiting for the perfect team member to show up or for one hundred percent of the congregation to get on board. 

King Solomon warned, “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.”--Ecclesiastes 11:4 (Living Bible)

The Cuban cabdriver was leisurely driving us around Havana in his makeshift 1948 Chevy Suburban.  He did not seem to have any sense of urgency.  Green signal lights in Havana also have a numbered clock—usually starting at 60—that counts down to zero signaling when the light would turn yellow.  We noticed something peculiar about this particular driver.  Whenever the clock reached ten seconds or so he would stomp on the brake.  We would actually stop at green lights.  It was frustrating, but we realized he was having so much fun hanging with our group and we were paying him extremely well, probably a month’s salary in Cuba, that he didn’t want the trip to end.

Too many of us get so comfortable we might be stopping at green lights.  

2.  Don’t get too caught up in the calendar

When the apostles met together, they asked Jesus a question. "Lord," they said, "are you going to give the kingdom back to Israel now?"  He said to them, "You should not be concerned about times or dates. The Father has set them by his own authority.--Acts 1:6-7 (NIRV)

Jesus warned his disciples not to get concerned about times or dates.  Yet we get so caught up in the calendar. 

“One of the main villains in time management, surprisingly, is the calendar,” says behavioral economist Dan Ariely. “The calendar doesn’t allow us to write everything on it, so what happens is whatever we can represent on the calendar takes precedence over the things we really want to do.”

In our leadership network we encourage leaders to focus on being health driven not calendar driven.

Solomon was on to it when he penned, “God does everything just right and on time but people can never completely understand what He’s doing.”—Ecclesiastes 3:11 (GNV)  

Gene Simmons put it well when he said, “I don't wait for the calendar to figure out when I should live life.”

3.  Don’t just stand there

Many of us live under the adage:  If good things come to those who wait, why is procrastination so bad? 

Thomas Carlisle observed, “People who would never think of committing suicide or ending their lives think nothing of dribbling their lives away in useless minutes and hours every day.”

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky?—Acts 1:9-11 (NIV)

Perhaps those two angels were the same ones Luke described in his resurrection account:

But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.  They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.  So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus.  As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.   The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive?  He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead!—Luke 24:1-6 (NLT)

The two angels seemed to have one message:  Don’t just stand there, do something!

A man grows most tired while standing still.  ~ Chinese Proverb

At a store, a lady stood in line waiting to pay for her items. Three men stood before her in the line. After fifteen minutes she realized that the line wasn't moving at all.   She shouted at the cashier, "Is this line going to take all day long?"  The cashier replied, "Please step aside ma'am and come here. You are standing behind three mannequins.”

4.  Don’t wait alone

They all met together…--Acts 1:14 (NLT)

Waiting is a bit easier if you have someone to wait with.  The apostles all waited together.

The apostles didn’t wait in the wrong line or get caught up in the calendar or just stand there or wait alone.  So, what did they do?

1.  Do pray

They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.--Acts 1:14 (NIV)

I suspect God allows times of waiting to push us to him in prayer.

Abraham Lincoln admitted, “I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.”

E. M. Bounds suggested, “Only God can move mountains, but faith and prayer move God.”

While we’re waiting, let’s pray and ask God to help us see opportunities to move forward.

2.  Do deal with my issues

I’ve lived through my share of situations where acquaintances, friends, colleagues and even extended family members turned on me or even moved toward betrayal.  But I can’t imagine how the eleven apostles felt when they saw Judas turn Jesus over to killers for thirty pieces of silver.

Yet what is almost as amazing is Peter tacking the tragedy head on:

Peter stood up and addressed them. “Brothers,” he said, “the Scriptures had to be fulfilled concerning Judas, who guided those who arrested Jesus. This was predicted long ago by the Holy Spirit, speaking through King David. Judas was one of us and shared in the ministry with us.”--Acts 1:15-17 (NLT)

While the disciples were waiting for the Holy Spirit to show up, they did some group counseling.  They talked about what had happened through their former teammate, Judas. 

Did you hear about the guy who was bit by a rabid dog?  A friend went to see how he was doing and found the guy writing furiously.  The friend told him that rabies could be cured and he didn’t have to be worried about a will.  The man said, “Will?  What will?  I’m making a list of the people I’m going to bite!”

Maybe God has us in a waiting room because we have some baggage in our past we need to lose.

“Those who succeed in life cannot ignore their hearts, minds and souls…they listen to what is going on inside, good or bad.  They bring it up and deal with it.  If it is good, they find a proper place for its expression and growth.  If it is not good, they deal with that as well.”--Henry Cloud, “9 Things You Simply Must Do”

“Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”—Luke 23:24

Forgiving simply means to let go.  When we transition, we need to let go of the past, to let go of the hurt, to let go of the baggage

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning.  Great is your faithfulness.”—Lamentations 3:23

God has new compassions for us every morning, can’t we forgive others too?

At the airline check-in, a customer has three bags. He puts them down and says to the clerk, "I'd like you to send this one to Rio, that one to Sydney and the last one to Cape Town."   Her expression clouds, but training takes over and she says, "I'm afraid we can't do that sir."   "Why not, you did the last time I flew with you!"

While you are waiting, make sure you get rid of any carry-on bags.

3.  Do study the Scriptures

Peter continued:

“This was written in the book of Psalms, where it says, ‘Let his home become desolate, with no one living in it.’ It also says, ‘Let someone else take his position.’”--Acts 1:20 (NLT)

I have got to believe that Pater didn’t have Psalms 69 and Psalms 109 memorized.  I suspect he came upon those passages when he was reading the Scriptures while he was waiting.

Abraham Lincoln confessed, “I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all of this book that you can by reason and the balance by faith, and you will live and die a better man.”

George Washington Carver added, “The secret of my success? It is simple. It is found in the Bible, ‘In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.’"

I also believe that God allows seasons of delay to train us.  Yellow lights can be a great gift because we can pause and learn and grow before we put the pedal to the metal.

4.  Do recruit & replace

“So now we must choose a replacement for Judas from among the men who were with us the entire time we were traveling with the Lord Jesus.--Acts 1:21 (NLT)

Mike Drury says, “Reproducing requires replacing.  If you are going to reproduce regularly, you are going to have to replace repeatedly.”

The apostles replaced Judas on the team.   And they did this while they were waiting for a green light from God.

We get so excited about recruiting.  We gather people on our teaching teams or launch teams or church staffs.  But do we ever bother to make sure they are replaced on the team they were on before?

Ministry is about constant leadership development.  Leadership is always looking for the next person, it is about always recruiting.  What about replacing?  That is something we can do during the waiting game.

When you are waiting spend some time in recruiting and replacing.

Janis Joplin stated, “I love being onstage, and everything else is waiting.”

Let’s be careful not to adopt that stance.  Sure, in putting together a teaching team, in taking that team approach there will be a lot of waiting.  The waiting might be hard, but it can be a very valuable part of our own development.

Tom Petty’s conclusion about his song, “The Waiting,” is telling:  “I always felt it was an optimistic song.”

While we are waiting for our vision, our team approach to materialize, we can live in anticipation and optimism.

“But God gave him no inheritance here, not even one square foot of land. God did promise, however, that eventually the whole land would belong to Abraham and his descendants—even though he had no children yet. 6 God also told him that his descendants would live in a foreign land, where they would be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. 7 ‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and in the end they will come out and worship me here in this place.’[c]—Acts 7:5-7 (NLT)