Three persons arrived at the gates of heaven at the same time. St Peter arrived to greet them, but he told them he had some pressing business and would they please wait? He was gone a very long time, but finally he came back, and he called one of the new waiting arrivals in and asked if she had minded waiting.
"Oh no," she said. "I've looked forward to this for so long. I love God and I am so looking forward to meeting Jesus. I don't mind at all."
St Peter continued, "I just have one more question and then you may enter. How do you spell God?"
She instantly answered, "Capital G - o - d."
"Very good," said Peter, "Welcome to heaven! Please enter!"
Peter then called upon another one of the new arrivals and told him to come inside, and asked, "Did you mind waiting?"
"Not in the least. I have been a Christian for 70 years, and I'll spend an eternity here. I didn't mind at all!"
"That's great!" responded Peter. "I have one more thing and you can enter. How do you spell God?
Immediately the man answered, "g-o-d. Oops! I mean capital G - o - d!"
"O.K you may enter," said Peter.
Peter then called for the third person and asked her if she had minded waiting.
"As a matter of fact, I did!" she snipped. "I have had to stand in line all my life; at the supermarket; when I was in school; when I went to the movies, at the doctor's office, everywhere. I resent having to wait in line for heaven now!"
"Well all right. I won't hold that against you," said Peter. "I only have one more question for you and then you can enter. How do you spell Czechoslovakia?

Waiting! Waiting is not a very popular experience. For most of us waiting is no fun! I confess that waiting is not among my strengths.

Most people consider waiting to be a waste of time whether we are: waiting in traffic; waiting in line at the grocery store; waiting for the elevator; waiting for the bus; waiting for someone to arrive; waiting to be seated at the restaurant; waiting to get off the airplane; waiting for the test results; waiting for the sick child to get better; waiting for the divorce to finalize; waiting for the conflict to get resolved; waiting for the deal to close; waiting for the darkness of grief to give way to the light of a new day; waiting for summer; waiting for winter; waiting for this to end, or that to begin - waiting, waiting, waiting!

As much as we have to wait, one would think we would be pretty good at it and would have honed our waiting skills, but we're generally not and haven’t. We live in a culture that says in a million ways, "Get going!" "Do something!" "Be productive." "Don't just sit there!" "Be in control!" I will dare to say that most of us experience waiting as a kind of desert wilderness between where we currently are and where we desire to be. We perceive waiting to be an in-between wasteland; waste of time and devoid of purpose. When we find ourselves in it, we want very much to escape it, sometimes to the point of agitation, aggressive behavior, even hostility and violence!

This week while driving I came to a corner and the light was red. I intended to make a right hand turn. I stopped, looked, paused until traffic cleared and then proceeded. The man in the car behind me thought I took too much time. He laid on his horn, and after we turned sped around me making the familiar gesture of disdain.

Have you ever gone to a restaurant and been told the wait is 30 minutes, and have turned around and gone the other way. Why? Because we don't want to wait! We don't perceive there is any redemptive aspect to waiting - so we don't! Our impatience with waiting is clearly expressed in avoiding the experience.

But in the face of all of this about waiting, Isaiah comes along and says,

This verse might as well be written in Egyptian Hieroglyphics because I dare say that's a concept and experience that is foreign to us, even frightening to us. You see, Isaiah is saying that there is something really important for us to know about waiting. There is something wonderful that can happen in the experience of waiting; something redemptive in waiting. I very much get the sense from this verse that Isaiah knows something that most of us don't know! What could it be?

Perhaps the most profound experiences of waiting are those times when we perceive we are waiting on God. Think of a desert time in your life when it felt like you were waiting on God? Maybe an extended period of illness or extended period of trouble, and it just seemed to go on and on and never come to an end or resolution one way or another - so you waited in wilderness world of waiting!

As you sat mired in your waiting experience you experienced a range of emotions from anger to frustration, from anticipation to despair. If the waiting was too long and too unbearable, you may have found yourself crying, shouting and screaming in God's face, "How long, O Lord? How long?"

I have ministered to many people who have waited in extraordinary ways; people of whom it is fair to say are waiting on God in the deepest sense we can say and mean that!

I've known people who have battled difficult illnesses, some terminal. In the process of treatment there are ups and downs; encouragements and discouragements; hopes and disappointments, but through it all there is a profound waiting.

But what does that mean, to wait to wait on God? What does that really mean?

I sense that waiting on God means waiting in a substantially different way than we normally wait. I suspect that the truth that lies behind this verse is so deep and so profound it will take the balance of my life-time to discover the wonder of its mystery and the power of its secrets. But I will share with you what I do have this morning - TWO THINGS. Two things - a place to begin!

FIRST, I normally wait impatiently, and I suspect perhaps sometimes you do too!

The word PATIENCE means the willingness to stay where I am and live the situation out to the fullest, hanging on to the belief that something hidden will reveal itself and surprise me. Impatient people live with the expectation that the real thing is going to happen somewhere else; real life is going to happen somewhere else, and therefore I want to go to that somewhere else; I want to be in that somewhere else; I want to get out of where I'm at. My mind, my heart is already in that somewhere else, and because it is I don't live in the present; I'm numb to the present; I don't expect there to be any quality life in the present, so much so, I perceive the present moment to be empty and void - a wilderness to escape. But PATIENT PEOPLE dare to stay where they are. PATIENT LIVING means to live actively in the present and wait there. Waiting for the patient person is active waiting - it is not passive waiting.

How about those long trips in the car - with children ?  To avoid the cry of "Are we there yet?"   what do you do?  You play games to pass the time.  I remember when I was a kid we used to count windmills or out of state license plates.    In other words you do something to more than fill the time, you do something to enhance fellowship as you travel.  That is active waiting!

Some years ago I got to know a remarkable woman. She was dying of ovarian cancer. Instead of merely waiting passively in despair for death, she waited actively. She cherished every moment of the balance of her life. In the final months and weeks of her life her family shared with each other in the deepest of ways, enjoying each other's presence like never before; appreciating life and the gift of life, and the gift of each other. They expressed their love for one another and left nothing unspoken. They discovered God's presence in deep and profound ways as they waited patiently and actively, taking advantage of every moment. When she died, it was hard. Where there was great love, there is great grief. Her waiting came to an end, but yet in that wilderness of waiting, springs of living water burst forth, and I can say, for I saw it as did many others, that her life even in those final days took the wings of an eagle. God touched her and that family, and through them God touched so many of us!

Christian waiting is to wait actively, being fully present in the moment, living with the conviction that something is really happening right where you are, even if you don't want to be there, and making yourself available to that truth and that divine presence! One thing that we must always keep before us is that we have a Lord who went to a cross; a God who journeys even into the wilderness of death; so there is no place forsaken, there is no place where God is not. Perhaps even in traffic on the freeway or in the line at the grocery store. A good waiting prayer might be: "God, give me the eyes to see you." "Give me the faculties to perceive your presence as I wait."

The SECOND THING is that waiting needs to be open-ended. Open-ended waiting is very hard for us because we tend to want something concrete, something specific, a desired goal. Most of our waiting is filled with wishes: "I wish I would get the job." "I wish the weather was better." "I wish the pain would go away." "I wish, I wish, I wish!" We are full of wishes and our waiting gets all tangled up and intertwined with our wishes. So, our waiting is not open-ended. Instead, our waiting is an attempt to control the future. We want our future to go in a very specific direction, and if it does not happen we are very disappointed, angry; filled with grief, and even approach despair.

One of the things I am learning about waiting is to begin to let go of my of my agenda; let go of my lists of wishes and specifics; let go of my need for ultimate control. Waiting open-endedly is an enormously radical attitude toward life. By letting go of my specific wishes I am trusting that something will happen to me that is beyond my own imaginings. By letting lose my grip on the specific, I open up the possibility for God to reveal himself to me and touch me and surprise me like never before; letting God begin to shape my life according to His love and His will.