In a microwave society like ours, waiting is a bad word.

Fast food dinners. Instant messaging. Rapid response strategies. Express delivery.

I want it. Now.

Do you remember the scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory when the spoiled rich girl, Veruka, nags her daddy about wanting the goose that lays golden eggs?

The impatience our culture breeds is just the opposite of what God calls us to do.

Wait patiently on the Lord.

Be still and know that I am God.

God’s time is not our time. His ways are not our ways. Just because we can google something to find an answer to a question does not mean that God is going to google an answer to prayer. Sometimes the answers we most need, the lessons from which we learn the most, are the ones that come through prayers that are answered with a divine, “Not yet.”

It is in these frustrating and trying times – the times that seem scary and uncertain, that require patience and perseverance – that we come to know a deeper part of ourselves. We find strengths we didn’t know we had. Our prayer life takes on a new dimension. We meet a “random” person who offers just the right word of encouragement.

When we open ourselves to the beauty and potential of Waiting, we often discover things we would have otherwise missed.

And THOSE discovered lessons are very often the most worthwhile.