Since moving to Tennessee from Dallas, Texas, I always chuckle a bit when folks around Jackson complain about traffic problems. Admittedly, there are seasons when traffic is slower than usual around our little town, but it doesn’t compare to commutes of an hour or more. Recently, while waiting at what seemed like an eternal traffic light a simple question popped into my mind. Why do we hate waiting so much?

Dooley

No sooner than I had the thought, my mind was taken back to an occasion where waiting seemed especially agonizing. On that day, I paced the floor of our second-floor hospital room at St. Jude Hospital in Memphis. The now familiar, red-framed windows seemed more like prison bars preventing our escape than portals providing God’s gift of sunlight.

My 4-year-old son, early in his fight against leukemia, was anxious to get home to his mom and siblings. Though we lived in Alabama at the time, every week we boarded a plane for Tennessee to receive chemotherapy and a checkup. But this visit was different.

It had been months since my son was inpatient at the hospital, but a fever above 100.4 and low blood counts left him vulnerable to septic shock on this trip. In all likelihood, his symptoms were the result of a virus, but the possibility of an infection requires extra precautions when you’re fighting childhood cancer. What was typically a routine turnaround of 36 hours turned into a weeklong stay in the hospital, away from family and responsibilities back home. I am embarrassed to tell you how much I panicked throughout the ordeal.

It happened more than once.

We waited for appointments, for test results, for airplanes, and for a chance to do it all again the next week. For nearly three years, hurry up and wait was the name of the game. Waiting became routine; but it never became easy.

I should tell you that today my son is healthy and thriving. You would never know he once had cancer, and the lessons God taught us through all that waiting have continued to pay off again and again.

But to this day I wonder—Why is waiting so hard?

Perhaps I’ve met someone along the way who enjoys waiting, but I don’t recall it. Being in limbo tests our sanity and prolonged delays can even cause us to doubt God. No explanation is exhaustive because our motivations are often complicated. I do believe, however, that three realizations are often at the root of our impatience when life doesn’t go as planned.

Waiting shatters the myth that we are in control. Juggling schedules, meeting deadlines, and monitoring results gives us the impression that we are at the helm of our universe. Do you have a goal? Just work harder. Do you have a problem? Do something about it. Choose your destiny. Seize the day. Claim your reality. Mantras like these resonate with us precisely because we yearn to be in charge and are willing to play along. But deep down, we know it is all a lie. Nothing interrupts our fantasy like a prolonged sense of helplessness.

Waiting often unleashes our deepest fears. Where are You, God? What are You doing, God? Why won’t You answer me, God? Questions like these seldom accost us when everything unfolds according to our schedule. At the first sign that God is not at our beck and call, though, we are quick to question His wisdom and doubt His concern. Periods of vulnerability leave us unwanted time to think, and the silence uncomfortably shouts over the peace God bestows. Anxieties that are normally held in check sometimes wreak havoc on us while we wait.

Waiting reveals our true priorities. Most people would be insulted if you accused them of being slaves to their work. Neither are we anxious to admit that we are puppets guided by the hand of public perception and opinion. Nor do we fancy ourselves as materialistic or self-centered. Unfortunately, seasons of waiting often tell a different story.

Though interruptions force us to peel away all that is unnecessary in our lives, our hesitation to do so may reveal that we value the wrong things. When the world goes on while our hands are tied, we realize just how much we idolize the accolades and possessions we pretend not to seek. Despite our affirmations that God is trustworthy, and that sanctification is a priority, childish outbursts and temper tantrums uncover our true agenda.

Thankfully, neither I, nor you, are alone in our struggle to wait on the Lord. During a painful time of testing, King David once called out to the Lord with desperation in Psalm 4:

• Answer me when I call, O God! (v1)
• Be gracious to me! (v1)
• Hear my prayer! (v1)

Then, with supernatural clarity, David realized that his wait would be worth it.

• Tremble and do not sin. (v4)
• Meditate in your heart . . . and be still. (v4)
• Offer the sacrifices of righteousness. (v4)
• Trust in the Lord. (v4)

Slowly, I am learning that the benefits of waiting on the Lord far exceed the inconveniences. With a loss of control, comes the peace of resting in our Savior (Psalm 26:3-4). The discomfort of facing our fears and enduring difficulties unleashes the strength of God in our lives (2 Cor. 12:9). Exposing misplaced priorities opens the door for renewed commitment to the Lord (Psalm 32:5).

I still hate waiting, but God continues to use the crucible of uncertainty in my life. I am confident He will do the same for you. He is eager to renew our strength, if only we are willing to wait upon Him (Isaiah 40:31). So, hurry up and wait! You’ll be glad you did.

Dr. Adam B. Dooley is pastor of Englewood Baptist Church in Jackson and author of Hope When Life Unravels and Exalting Jesus in 1-2 Chronicles. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X (Twitter) @AdamBDooley.

Hardwick

Just beyond our neighborhood is an active train track. As the train rumbles closer, you clearly hear that rhythmic sound of the train’s wheels moving smoothly and steadily along toward its destination.

It’s amazing that just two rails guide these large trains forward throughout its journey. If either rail is breeched at any point on the journey, the train is in danger. Without the rails, the journey itself is impossible, and the destination never reached.

God has called Tennessee Baptists on a new journey toward a vision of being a collaborative network of spiritually healthy churches reaching Tennessee and beyond for Christ. To see that vision come to life, we are focusing our efforts on strengthening and multiplying gospel leaders, strengthening and multiplying evangelistic disciples, and strengthening and multiplying healthy churches … so that EVERY Tennessean hears the gospel. It’s a big vision! [Read more…]

Let’s play a game.

Peyton Manning; Reggie White; Al Wilson.

Question: What do they have in common?

Well, the answers are many. They were great and iconic football players at the University of Tennessee, and they are members of the College Football Hall of Fame. And they are quintessential “Vols for Life.”

The correct answer is all three are immortalized in giant photos outside UT’s Neyland Stadium. But would they still be Volunteer legends if they’d had access to today’s Name, Imagine and Likeness (NIL) deals and open transfer portal? Or would they have “chased that bag” to Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Ohio State, or another program offering bigger paydays? [Read more…]

Jesus’ continual use of metaphors throughout the gospel powerfully anchored truth to our hearts in a way that cold prose seldom do. His principled images left lasting impressions that still resonate with us today, albeit in varying degrees that may differ from His original audiences.

Take for example, Jesus’ powerful reminder that a blessed person is one who hungers and thirsts after righteousness (Matt. 5:6). As the fourth in a series of Beatitudes, this statement builds upon the previous promises shared in order to describe the lives of those who know God. The righteousness Jesus emphasizes here is more practical than positional.

Dooley

On the one hand, Scripture teaches that at the moment of salvation, God declares a person to be righteous because of the imputed purity of His Son. Simply put, Jesus took our sins upon Himself while hanging on the cross in order to place His holy perfection upon us (Rom. 5:19). When a person repents of sin and calls out to Christ for forgivness, he receives a new position in which God sees him as righteous (Phil. 3:9). Christians often refer to this as justification. [Read more…]

As a young child, I was blessed to have an Aunt Jessie who provided an informal education on God, nature, animals, plant life and the natural world. It was through this Christian woman I learned about how God not only loves us, but He provides for all our needs.

She taught me to read the sky and predict the changing weather. For example, she might say, “Red sky tonight, sailor’s delight; red sky in the morning — sailors take warning.” Which meant a heavy rain or storm was coming by morning.

Encouraging me to learn Bible stories, we often played this game. She would ask, “What did you learn about God’s Word today?”

And I was expected to know a new fact or information about the Scriptures. Then she would say, “Go to bed smarter than when you got up that morning.” [Read more…]

Do you consider yourself a happy person? If you had to complete the following sentence, “I would be most happy if ________,” how would you fill in the blank?

Acclaimed journalist Jon Krakauer once thought he knew how he might answer a question like that. Two decades ago, this thrill seeker assembled a team to ascend Mount Everest. Tragically, twelve of his peers died during the expedition, souring what previously seemed like a peak goal. In his book, Into Thin Air, Krakauer records his reaction after finally reaching the highest point on earth.

“Straddling the top of the world,” he wrote, “one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind and stared absently down at the vastness of Tibet. … I’d been fantasizing about this moment, and the release of emotion that would accompany it, for months. But now that I was finally here, actually standing in the summit of Everest, I just couldn’t sum up the energy to care. … I snapped four quick photos. … then turned and headed down.

My watch read 1:17 p.m.  All told, I’d spent less than five minutes on the roof of the world.” [Read more…]