The Weight of Waiting

As we near the end of the year, we all start to think about the new year with new goals and new hopes.

But sometimes, the current year’s goals and hopes are not yet completed.

We’re often waiting for things to line up correctly—some paperwork to be completed, a permission to be granted, or a budget to be raised. We’re still waiting for a supporter to fulfill a commitment or a pastor to return a call.

In our personal lives, we might still be waiting for the scale to lower, a health number to change, a new diagnosis to feel more manageable. We might be waiting for a relationship to heal, or a friendship to grow, or a connection to happen. We might be desperately waiting for God to move in a situation that seems way bigger than we can carry into another new year. 

We might be waiting for news, waiting for help, waiting for encouragement.

All of that waiting gets so heavy, doesn’t it?

I was sitting in a meeting with other global workers. I’d hopped on the Zoom call a bit late, and the meeting was in the middle of a spiritual formation time. I muted my mic, closed my eyes, and tuned my heart into what was being said.

The worker who was leading asked us to open our hands, mentally fill them with all of the things that we were worrying about and waiting for, and then she asked us to visualize God’s hands coming under our own. She was saying, “Picture God taking the weight of what you’re holding in your hands with his hands beneath yours.”

Pause for just a minute.

Will you do this with me?

Lift and open your hands in front of you. Imagine putting your worries, fears, heavy things, the waiting things, inside of your hands.

Then, picture Jesus coming alongside of you and putting his hands beneath yours.

Let your hands rest in the hands of Jesus. Let him hold the weight.

All of the things that you’ve prayed and hoped and wished and tried for the year, all of the things that you’re still waiting for, set them in your hands, and let Jesus help you hold them. In this moment, ask him to hold the weight of the waiting in your hurting relationships, unspoken conversations, struggling finances, challenging health issues, and unanswered prayers.

Waiting is heavy.

The heaviness of waiting, on body, soul, and spirit, takes a toll.

Waiting for a response to an email. Waiting for a hard conversation with your teammate. Waiting for your spouse to handle something, waiting to see how they handle it, and then, waiting to see what happens after they handle it. Waiting for kids to navigate school situations or for schools to help with a kid situation. Waiting for a flight for medical, or a paper from the government, or a stamp in your passport.

The waiting is incredibly heavy.

As I was pondering the feeling of Jesus’ hands beneath mine, I thought of a verse in Isaiah 64.

Verse four says, “For since the world began, no ear has heard, and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!” (NLT)

This verse asks us to trust God to act on our behalf while we wait. We can trust God’s love, wisdom, and care in our waiting. We can believe that he is holding it with us and working for us during the waiting seasons. 

This verse encourages us to remember that God’s awesomeness is displayed in how he works on our behalf during our waiting. No other God is like him.

This can be encouraging for people who are waiting on God to move or act in a circumstance that feels too heavy.

On his Pray the Word podcast, David Platt said, “One Bible scholar described how this word in the original language of the Old Testament, in the Hebrew, could be translated to rest trustfully in God. This is what it means to wait on God, to wait for God. It means to rest trustfully in God, in his goodness, in his wisdom, in his love, in his sovereignty, in his power. When we are waiting, we long for this or that to happen, for God to move in this or that way. And it is good to know that we can rest trustfully in the goodness of God, in the wisdom of God. He sees things, knows things we don’t know. He loves us. We can trust in his love. We can trust in his purpose, that he’s promised to work all these things together for the good of those who love him and who wait on him. That’s the whole picture here in Isaiah 64:4.”

Not only can we trust that God’s hands are faithfully holding the weight of waiting with us, we can be encouraged that he is working on our behalf and that we can rest trustfully in his goodness.

I picture my cupped hands, full of my waiting pressure, my worried needs, my unmet expectations, my hurt and caution and seemingly hopeless situations. I picture God’s hands coming beneath mine, holding and working in each heavy burden.

In another post I wrote for Velvet Ashes, I said, “Hebrews 10:23 says, ‘Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.’ Hebrews 10 goes on to say in verses 35–36, ‘So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.’”

We must hold unswervingly to the hope we profess!

Whatever weighty waiting you find yourself in today, remind and encourage yourself that you can hold unswervingly to the hope of God. You can trust unswervingly that God is working on your behalf in the waiting. You can know that he’s holding your weighted hands, taking the heaviness in his own hands, and you can rest trustfully in his goodness.

What is heavy about your current waiting? Are you burdened with the weight of waiting? How does the spiritual practice of opening your hands and allowing God to hold the heavy things with you impact how you’re feeling today in the waiting?