In the Waiting

Earlier this week, I posted a song on Facebook that I wrote this past October.  It began one day when my friend, Margie, texted me this line and said that it needed to be lyrics in a song, “I stand in your presence in the waiting.” 

I jokingly asked Margie if she was commissioning me, and she replied that she was.  She said that as this came to mind, she envisioned me singing it.

I felt the words deeply and powerfully, and almost instantaneously, a tune to the words formed in my mind.  I was at home on my lunch break at the time, so I began to sing the lyrics out loud.  As I did, more lyrics followed. 

I texted the lyrics to Margie and told her that I thought it was the bridge of a song.  As I continued to sing, more lyrics followed – a chorus – which I texted to her also. 

That evening a verse followed, and the next morning another verse.  The evening after that I had a chance to sit down at my keyboard and write it all out.  The song was completed, and I titled it “Working in the Waiting.” 

When I wrote it back in October, there were various things that my family was walking through and waiting on.  The song meant a lot to me then, but I didn’t know how much more it would come to mean to me only a couple of weeks later.

I didn’t know what would take place in early November.  I didn’t know that I’d find myself in the ER with my son, quietly singing this song along with two other songs of mine – one of which I posted on Facebook in September, and the other of which I’ve yet to share publicly.  The other two songs are composed of various scriptures, and singing those two songs, along with this one about waiting, drew my mind off the circumstances, to God’s promises, and into God’s presence.

And this song would continue to ground me as I trusted that God was working in the waiting.  I would find myself singing it over and over in my mind through multiple days of my son’s hospitalization.  And its lyrics would be running through my mind while we were evacuated to a hospital hallway waiting for a tornado to pass.

And while we were still in the hospital, Margie would text me partial lyrics of the song that I had sent to her in October – the words I sent to her, she would use to encourage me. 

And I have found myself returning to the song many times in the different trials that my family and I have faced since that day.

I didn’t know any of these things would transpire when I wrote the song in October.  But here is what I do know.  In all that has us waiting, God is working in it.  He is working in the waiting, and He has drawn me deeper and deeper into His presence through all of it. 

And He has used this song as one of the means to do that.  This song that came about simply because my friend, Margie, spoke into me what she felt God was speaking into her. 

This isn’t a one-time occurrence for Margie – she routinely speaks words to others that God puts on her heart.  And in doing so, I know she has positively impacted other people’s lives just as she has mine.  It probably doesn’t usually result in a song, but her words are impactful, nonetheless.

It’s a good example for us all to follow.  If God gives us an encouraging word for someone, we should speak it, even if it doesn’t seem like much.  We never know how God may use just a few words to speak powerfully into someone else’s life.  Maybe even to confirm that He’s working in the waiting.

Perhaps you’ve found yourself in God’s waiting room.  And you’re wondering what’s taking so long and how much longer He’s going to leave you there.

Well, here is my encouragement to you.  He hasn’t left you, and He’s not hesitating.  He’s working in the waiting. 

May you stand in His presence in the waiting. 

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“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”  Psalm 27:14 (NIV)

“I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” Lamentations 3:24-26 (NIV)

“I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.” Psalm 130:5 (NIV)

“I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.” Psalm 40:1-2 (NIV)