There we all stood together, a bunch of middle school boys with one dream to make the middle school basketball team. As middle school boys do, everyone was looking around, comparing themselves to the person next to them. You could feel the tension and the nervousness, but no one spoke about it. We were no longer in elementary school. This was middle school! At the time, I didn’t understand what coach was doing during the tryout process. We literally spent more time running outside than in the gym. I remember wondering if I was trying out for the cross-country team. In my mind, all this running is a waste of my time.
I noticed one day that, while we were running, a couple of the guys in front of me didn’t stay on the path. They had found a shortcut. I wish I could tell you I kept running on the path and didn’t follow them. But before I knew it, I was taking the shortcut as well. The problem with taking the shortcut is when we all get back from the run. All coach did was look at our shoes to see who took the shortcut. Those who took the shortcut had mud on their shoes. Those who didn’t were clean. I will never forget my coach’s words that day when we got back from the run. He gathered us together and said, “You will break down mentally before you break down physically.” Looking back, I now realize he wasn’t just talking about basketball but something bigger.
Waiting! Whether it is waiting for something trivial (traffic, check-out lines or take out food) or something more meaningful (a call from a doctor, an update about a family member, or a job situation), our natural posture is to become impatient. It’s second nature to think this is a waste of my time. Before you know it, we are looking for shortcuts and loopholes because who wants to waste their time waiting? When these shortcuts and loopholes become available, we veer off down the path they provide. But here is the catch….. at some point these shortcuts and loopholes we have taken cause us to get mud on our shoes. They promised high and delivered low every time.
In a season of waiting is where I have found myself recently. Waiting for circumstances, situations, and even people to change can make me grow restless, irritable, and discontent. During this season of waiting, I went back to the familiar story of the Golden Calf found in Exodus 32. As I read the story, the first verse resonated with me, “When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain…” The word jumped off the page at me, DELAYED. Moses was articulating how I felt about God’s movement in my life. Like the Israelites of old, I had begun to think: “God, you are moving too slow!” “God you are late!” “God, you are wasting my time!” Just like my middle school coach said all those years ago, “You will break down mentally before you break down physically.
Remember the story, what do the Israelites do next? I will give you a hint: they don’t wait for Moses to come back down. They make an idol, the golden calf. They create a contingency plan. They look for loopholes and shortcuts. The time is different, but I found myself in the same mindset. Sure, I was still attending church! I was reading my Bible! I was praying! I was going to community group! But I found myself, even as I was behaving rightly, creating contingency plans in my mind. Especially as the waiting process grew longer and longer.
We might not be guilty of making a golden calf, but how about the contingency plans we create. The theologian John Calvin called them idols of the heart. Here are a few heart idols I was making that you might be able to relate to:
Control: A longing for life to go my way.
Power. A longing for recognition or respect.
Comfort: A longing for pleasure.
Approval: A longing for acceptance.
Looking back, I understand the reason why my middle school basketball coach was making us run. He wanted to see who trusted him. Those who trusted him didn’t look for shortcuts or loopholes. They didn’t have mud on their shoes. They trusted what coach was doing even when they didn’t understand his methods.
I believe it is the same with God. During seasons of waiting, we must remind ourselves that God is not wasting the waiting. He is using the waiting as a teacher to remind us He can be trusted, making us more like Jesus. The issue is not if you and I are going to wait but how are you going to wait? May we wait patiently. Patience is formed by letting go of what we thought was going to be true about our life. So… together let us stay on the path and keep our shoes clean.
“I waited and waited and waited for the Lord,
He inclined to me and heard my cry”
Psalm 40:1