In a busy restaurant there are two groups of people who are waiting. There are newly arrived customers who have not been seated yet and are waiting for a table. And there are waiters who are serving customers and waiting on tables. Those who are waiting for a table are mainly focused on themselves. Who is going to serve me? When is it my turn to be served? Why are other people’s needs being prioritized over mine and why is it taking so long. Those who are waiting on tables are mainly focused on those they are serving. Which table needs more water? Who ordered the vegan option? For a customer waiting for a table, especially if they are particularly hungry, waiting can seem to take forever. For a waiter juggling a lot of customers, the time may fly by, as they are constantly moving from one urgent task to the next, always absorbed in the present moment and never noticing time passing. When it comes to putting our faith and trust in the Lord and His promises, and especially when it comes to allowing the Lord to fulfill His promises in His own due time, it makes a huge difference if we are waiting for the Lord or waiting on the Lord. If we are waiting for the Lord, then it will feel like forever, just like when we are at a restaurant and have nothing to do but sit there waiting for our table. But if we are waiting on the Lord, then that means that we are so fully absorbed in serving the Lord and our brothers and sisters that we will be less likely to pay attention to or even notice the passage of time, and the Lord's promised blessings will be here before we know it. To be fair, waiting on the Lord can be in many ways more difficult and challenging and exhausting than waiting for the Lord. After all, waiting on tables is much more complex and more taxing than merely waiting for a table. But if we have grown frustrated waiting for a promised blessing, then maybe it is time to change it up and wait on the Lord. The Lord will bless us in His own due time and not a moment sooner. Since this is unavoidably the case, we might as well waste and wear out our lives in service. At the very least, it will distract us from the gnawing feeling that our righteous desires will never be realized. I know that many of us have been waiting for far longer than we hoped and sometimes it seems far longer than we can bear, but if the waiting is mandatory, we can at least shift from passive waiting for the Lord to actively waiting on the Lord. I know that when we sit idly by and wait for the Lord, we are denying ourselves of all of the blessings that could be ours from losing ourselves in service as we wait on the Lord.
