As October arrives, you may have noticed that the refreshing “new car” smell of the Fall semester has faded. The daily sunlight keeps getting shorter and shorter while your anxiety rises higher and higher. Homework starts piling up around you like a yard full of falling leaves and the wait for any graded assignment now rivals Linus in the pumpkin patch as he eagerly hopes for the grand entrance of the Great Pumpkin, “It won’t be long now!”
Waiting is a funny thing. There’s really nothing you can do when you wait. Whatever it is, all you can do is just sit or stand there. You wait. (..and wait and wait and wait and wait*.)
Waiting feels much different than hope. Hope brings an air of optimism and joy. Waiting brings an urge to start throwing things. So how do you “wait” well?
One of the more patient people I’ve ever worked with is UNW alum Dan Wynia. He worked for Northwestern Media (NWM) for a remarkable 44 years before retiring in 2019. If you’ve ever walked past my office and seen the giant face looming above the cabinets. That’s Dan, he owns and operates the original, connected, smaller and humbler live version.
He’s best known for producing NWM concerts with many of the top Christian music artists. Dan says he never would have dreamed of having a blast producing concerts. He says the basic strategy all those years was the same:
Be faithful. Just Be faithful. No matter what. Good days. Bad days. Be faithful. When God opens a door, faithfully walk through it. When the door stays shut, be patient. All you can do is wait and be faithful. A door will open. Be ready. You don’t know when or where exactly. It might be way over on the other side of the room. So, you might have to run over and jam your foot into it before it closes. A door will open. Be faithful.
Singer-songwriter Josh Garrels offers hope in the waiting with his fairly recent song, Watchman. He says crisis and trauma are held in tension with all the promises of God and we can trust and put everything at stake on Him:
“No more tears and no more pain
I’m making all things new again
Just like I promised you”
Sing Hallelujah all the way
And I’ll always love You
And I will wait
Like a Watchman at the gate
Lord, I’m a Watchman at the gate
I’m waiting for morning to break
I’m waiting for morning to break
Keep my lamp burning, stay awake
Waiting is hard. Life is hard. It can be easy to give up. Let hope and faithfulness prevail as you wait. The promises of God often prove to be more than we can ever think or imagine- even if God does seem to move slower than Big Hero 6.
