What Are You Waiting For?

Do you ever feel like you are just waiting for something?

I remember one summer in my late teens working at a factory. It was good money, and a friend and I worked together, so it was fun. But it was the second shift. Have you ever worked a second shift? Some people love it, but for me, it just sort of put the rest of my day in limbo. I felt like I was always just waiting to go to work.

I hated that feeling. It was like, because I knew I had to go to work, I couldn’t go do something else. It was a mental thing, I know.

And you know what? I see a lot of people living their lives that way. They can’t go do something because they are waiting.

Right now I am thinking of single people. Many single people are waiting. They put their lives on hold in a way, waiting for someone special to come along.

This is especially true of single women, I think. They are waiting for prince charming to come along and sweep them off their feet.

I am also thinking of workers. Many people are doing jobs they dislike. They dream of something bigger and better, but right now, they are waiting – waiting for their ship to come in. Waiting for someone to “discover” them and sweep them off to fame and fortune.

Some of you spend all week long just waiting for the weekend.

I went to a class reunion a few years ago, and an old schoolmate told me his life’s plans. He was going to work in this plant, enjoying their good wages and benefits, until he could retire. He didn’t really like the job, but he was going to put up with it, and wait to pursue a more satisfying life until he retired.

There are many just like him. You are waiting….waiting to retire.

Now this is a terrible thing to say, but some of you are just waiting for someone to die.

Now I am thinking of prisoners. I know some of our listeners to Wave 94 are imprisoned. You are just waiting…waiting to get out so you can get on with your life.

I remember meeting Jeff Komendat of Care Tallahassee. Jeff is a listener who came by the studio to pick up a CD that he won. Jeff has lived a rough life, and was in and out of prison several times. The last time was in 2001, and he told me how at that point God truly saved him. He could have said, “God, now I will wait until I get out so you can use me.” But instead he said, “God, please use me right now here in this prison.” And God did work through Jeff, right there in prison.

See, you don’t have to wait until someday. In fact you shouldn’t wait until someday. You have precious few breaths in this lifetime, so you need to get on with it, with whatever you are called to do.

Some of you are waiting to hear from God. You are waiting for God to come through in some miraculous way.

Stop the waiting! Waiting is passive, but God is active. Waiting is reactive, but God is proactive.

I like what I heard one time, that in the military, the rules are to keep obeying your last command until you get a new one. So what is the last thing you felt like you were supposed to do? Then be actively doing that until, if and when, a new door opens for you.

Think about this: There is a reason that waiting and wasting sound so much alike. It’s like me back in my second shift days. Each morning I wasted all that time, waiting to go to work.

I think this message is specifically for one of you today, so my question for you is this: