Leadership Thought: The Difficulty of Waiting for Change.

Dear Friends,

"The hardest part of faith is often waiting. And the trouble is, if we don't, then we start to fix the problem ourselves-and that makes it worse. We complicate the situation to the point where it takes God much longer to fix it then if we had quietly waited for His working in the first place," so writes Jim Cymbala in his book Fresh Faith, p 111.

Anyone who has worked with alcoholics  knows that all of your efforts are for naught, if the alcoholic is not ready to change. This is true in relationships as well. One cannot change the other person by an exercise of the will if the person is not willing to change. Change-generally cannot be forced if it is to be permanent in nature. A person may be pressured to change for a season, but most often that person will revert back to the same familiar pattern of behavior, if the change does not come from within. As someone once said, “Consider how hard it is to change yourself, and you’ll understand what little chance you have of trying to change others."

So, what is the solution to that marriage partner that so desperately wants to see change in the life of his or her spouse? What about those parents with an alcoholic son or daughter who wants to rescue them or try and change them? The answer is simply wait and pray.

Waiting is hard. Most of us want to fix things, but if you are like me, anything I fix doesn’t say fixed very long. Just ask my wife,  the solution is to do as David did”-wait. Things were not going very well for him. We are not sure what the circumstances were, but he was in the pits. But it was while he was stuck in the mire, that he learned a very valuable lesson in patient waiting, for he testifies, “I waited patiently for the Lord”(Psalm 40:1).

Instead of taking matters into his own hands and despairing of anyone, including God, to help him, David learned the lesson of patient waiting. He was willing to let God work out His plan in His time according to His purpose. So instead of trying to arrange his own solution, which so many of us are tempted to do, David just waited and trusted the Lord to provide. And you know what? God did.

Chuck Swindoll talks about ‘compassion in slow motion,” when he describes how hard it is to avoid trying to rescue someone  from sinful, destructive behavior. He writes, “There are times (not always, but often) when the better part of wisdom restrains us from barging in and trying to make someone accept our help. The time isn’t right, so  we wait….The Lord would love to piece together the shattered fragments of (that) life. But He is waiting….graciously, waiting until the time is right. Until (one) is tired of the life (he,she) is living,  until (they see) it for what it really is….until (they recognize) their need for Him” (The Finishing Touch), p. 214

In Psalm 40 David received a number of benefits from his waiting, and so can you and I. God lifted him out of his despair, set his feet on firm ground, steadied his walk, and gave him a new purpose.” That was good news for David, and that will be good news for you and me when we go through our struggles in that war of waiting. His promise to us is that He will “put a new song in our mouth, a hymn of praise to our God (Psalm 40:3).



Jeremy Collier expressed it best when he wrote, “Patient waiting is often the highest way of doing God’s will.” Jeremy Collier, Quotations for the Christian World, Edythe Draper, p. 463

Have a wonderful 4^th of July weekend.

Yours in faith and friendship.
Tom