Why All This Waiting? : Part 1

When God Waits: Making Sense of Divine Delays
by Jerome Daley

Is God keeping you waiting?

Does it feel like God has pushed the pause button on your life? If you're frustrated by God's apparent slowness, don't assume that having to wait is a waste of time. God does some of his most important work in your life during these divine delays.

Many of the men and women of faith that we read about in the Bible had to endure long, difficult seasons of waiting before they could fulfill God's destiny for their lives. And just like these biblical heroes, you can learn how to see what God is doing - and how he is changing your life - while you're waiting.

Don't miss out on the richness of this God-ordained lag between catching a vision for your calling and seeing God fulfill it. No matter how long you have to wait, you can be transformed as God prepares you to fulfill your divine calling.

Chapter 1

Destiny and the Weakness of Waiting

Being fully present in the now
is perhaps the premiere skill
of the spiritual life.

- Brennan Manning

My face was getting tired of holding the smile in place.

Kellie and I were visiting friends at a North Carolina beach, and we found ourselves reciting, once again, the reasons why we believed God had brought us back to the Southeast from Colo-rado. The reasons weren't complicated. We now had an opportunity to build a new ministry. To partner with a new church. To build community with new friends.

We had returned to North Carolina believing this was God's clear leading, but the tale was starting to wear thin. As I spoke the words to our friends, I wondered whom I was trying to convince. I'd been buffing this vision with the cloth of conversation, trying to make the jewel shine as brightly as it had months earlier. Was I still trying to talk myself into this grandiose vision?

Kellie and I returned to our home state from a surreal sabbati-cal in Colorado Springs. We'd come down from the mountaintop, as it were, to bring our rediscovered souls, family, and God back into a newly commissioned assignment of ministry in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was time, we knew deep in our hearts, to release our revitalized being into a new kind of doing. With the insights we'd gained during the previous two years, we looked forward to a ministry free of the frenzied and fragmented strivings of years past. Instead, we were eager to enjoy the overflow of God's lavish presence, drawing deeply from his unceasing goodness and living securely and satisfied in him alone.

We both knew God had given us fragments of purpose, direction we could trust, but still we felt subterranean tremors of uncertainty: can we do this? The luster of the dream was fading slightly as we confronted the dank reality of this new place: No ministry. No church. No ministry partners. And precious few friends.

It was inevitable, of course, that we would have to field the looming question time and again: "So, what are you doing now that you're back from Colorado?" I realize that normal people have perfectly convincing, validating answers to this question. And then there was me. I vacillated between seeing myself as Spaceman Spiff, the intrepid explorer charting undiscovered territories, and a rather worse-for-wear jack-in-the-box on the island of misfit toys. Kellie and I were calling our new venture oneFlesh Ministries, and it was our burning desire to write, speak, and lead worship for the purpose of drawing people into greater intimacy with God and one another. But how would we fulfill this dream? How does a person step into destiny? I was tired of offering vague answers to the constant questions.

Our beach friends were gracious and supportive; they knew about launching out on a dream, having moved across the state not long before to pastor a church plant in this coastal community. But as I worked to maintain my confident smile while talking about the future, my soul was being rocked by waves of doubt and fear. Could I really afford to gamble my future on a dream?

And why wasn't it coming together? My first book, Soul Space, wouldn't be released for another six months. Our savings were gone, and our income was nil. Who am I kidding, telling our friends about this dream, this fantasy called oneFlesh Ministries? Kidding myself probably.

Our vision had been birthed during a year in the stunning foothills of the Rocky Mountains. We had remained a second year to write down the soulquaking discoveries we'd made, to turn those insights into a book. The waiting really began that second year, as we wrote and hoped, prayed and dreamed about what God was making us to be and do. Since we had taken the plunge to return back east in the summer of 2002, the onus was suddenly on us to put up or shut up, to make good on all our talk about ramping into a new ministry or just bag it and get a "real job." So far, nothing was happening. Why do transitions have to be so ambiguous? Couldn't this just be simple and straightforward for a change? But often, it seems, transition demands that we relinquish the old before the new can take tangible form. If that's true, then maybe this weightless, un-anchored in-betweenness is what transition is all about. Maybe, despite the discomfort, there is purpose in waiting. At least we hoped so.

The Weakness of Waiting

Waiting. I don't like it ... that much I have decided. Waiting feels so passive. So impotent. Waiting feels indecisive and irresponsible.

More to the point, waiting feels weak ... and I definitely don't like weak. However, our journey in God frequently involves the weakness of waiting. Can you relate to that? Does it feel as though you're waiting for someone to hit the button and take your life off Pause? Does your destiny seem to hang out there, clearly visible but remaining just beyond your reach?

Copyright © 2005 by Jerome Daley.

About the Author

Jerome and Kellie Daley cofounded oneFlesh Ministries after serving for ten years as worship pastor and leader of women's ministries in a local church. Through oneFlesh, they call people to pursue a life of intimacy with God and one another. Jerome is the author of Soul Space and When God Waits. He holds a master of arts in New Testament from Columbia Biblical Seminary, and Kellie holds a master of arts in educational ministries from the same institution. The Daleys live in Greensboro, North Carolina, with their three children.