Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen. You, too, must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.

Don’t grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. For look—the Judge is standing at the door!

For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy.

But most of all, my brothers and sisters, never take an oath, by heaven or earth or anything else. Just say a simple yes or no, so that you will not sin and be condemned. -James 5:7-12 NLT

I’ve been a follower of Jesus for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest, fondest memories are from an old church basement, complete with puppet shows, candy hidden under chairs, and classic Bible stories. There are many things that have blossomed in my life through the years: seasons of intense passion, years of dedicated study, decades of ministering to the community.

One thing that is still growing in me is a deep-rooted patience in the timeline of the Lord.

I am in a rush. I want it all, and I want it right now. How can I work harder, jump higher, do more to speed things up? What needs to change in order to get obstacles out of my way? Or, to quote the disgraced Mark Driscoll, do some people need to get run over by the bus?

The problem there is self-evident. When we take a posture of hurry, we put ourselves on the throne of God. Judge, jury, and often executioner. We point the finger accusingly at God, as if we know better what needs to happen in our circumstances than He. We push others to become something different than their actual identity, teaching them to live out the true meaning of hypocrisy.

There has to be a different way.

Learning to Wait

James references the prophets of old. These are individuals who are now hallowed, but in their day were often harrowing. One individual listening for the voice of the Lord in the face of hundreds or thousands of others. Many lived miserable lives as they were persecuted, ostracized, and condemned for their pessimistic proclamations.

One example is found in 1 Kings 22, where the kings of Israel and Judah had come together to go to war. Four hundred ‘prophets’ told the kings that victory was assuredly theirs. For the king of Judah, something just didn’t sit right and so he inquired if there was any prophet of the Lord left. Begrudgingly, Micaiah was summoned before the kings. The king of Israel was already trying to ignore Micaiah’s voice, because all he had to say was negative.

This was no different.

Even under intense pressure, Micaiah sarcastically declares that the victory will fall into the king’s hand. The king of Israel is having none of it, and demands that Micaiah speak truthfully what the Lord has told him. The resulting proclamation is nothing short of brutal: You are no king, and these people have no leader.

But Micaiah doesn’t stop there, proclaiming that he had seen the Lord sitting on His throne, Ahab the king of Israel would attack and find his death on that battlefield. Micaiah’s reward for speaking the stark truth: imprisonment. At least until the king returns from the battle. The prophet isn’t done throwing barbs yet, declaring that if the king ever returns safely, then Micaiah is a liar and no prophet.

Imagine the weeks of waiting as the armies traversed the hundred or so kilometres to the battlefield. Locked in a prison, treated as a traitor, alone. We never hear about Micaiah again, his role is finished in the larger narrative, despite the numerous unanswered questions.

The unanswered threads were common for the Biblical prophets.

More than the bombastic shows of force, they were known as individuals who suffered, and waited on the Lord. It was a rare prophet who got to see the fulfillment of their words, most went to the grave never knowing if the Lord would vindicate them in the halls of history.

So why am I so impatient?

The Beauty of Waiting

When impatience invades our lives and relationships, we invite manipulation and dysfunction into every aspect. Others become objects, rather than fully developed people with struggles, fears, emotions, and relationships. Our ‘relationship’ with them becomes a mode of moving them from inadequacies to our predetermined goals.

Along the way, we risk missing the beauty in the mess of life. The small wins that they’ve been struggling with for years. The lessons that God is teaching us through those around us. The laughter and sorrow of everyday life. The euphoria that comes from the mundane: dinners, phone calls, texts, and chance encounters.

God often doesn’t move us forward in a straight line. He’s comfortable with us looping back over, and over… and over again. Each time we grow a little bit more, coming back to the same problem with a new perspective. Every time is an invitation to trust Him more with our mess, and give up our need for control and perfection.

He is perfect, we are not. We are made perfect in His grace and mercy.

Letting Go of the Timeline

The act of letting go and learning patience has tangible outcomes on our relationships and lives. We’re no longer trying to move (manipulate?) people into a decision, prayer, or moment. We’re able to hold space for people in really difficult situations, pointing them to Jesus rather than solving their problems.

We can cling to a space of prayer before the Lord where we are free to express our fears, doubts, and frustrations about His timeline. More importantly, we’re able to listen for His gentle voice reminding us that He is working.

The actions of our faith are no longer framed in attempting to make God do something that we want Him to do, but in discovering how He is already working. Prayer, service, hospitality, and more are all wonderful practices of our faith, but we can easily turn them into the genie’s lamp, rather than allowing them to shape us as they are intended. God is working in your neighbourhood, your church, your enemies right this instant – do we have eyes to see and hearts to join with Him?

Perhaps most importantly for me, it allows me to walk with others and celebrate each step they take forward in their faith with Jesus. I am free to let go of what I think they should be doing, and instead celebrate and watch how the Spirit is working in their life. It allows me to be vulnerable with my own journey, because the burden to be the ‘example’ is lifted from my shoulders.

The time waiting for Jesus would have been excruciating as generation after generation passed on waiting for the promised Messiah. Yet when He came, He fulfilled the entirety of the law and prophets, and did so for all time and eternity.

There’s no need to be impatient, when we rest in a God who is always present.