First Baptist Church of Herndon

I can hardly wait

Linda Soller | Feb 17, 2014

The Olympics are in full swing. We wait for years to cheer on the amazing athletes. I don’t know about you, but I particularly like the winter Olympics because I’m in awe of what the athletes can accomplish on the slippery snow and ice. I can barely make it down three steps and across my icy/snowy deck to hang my bird feeder without falling. Well, it might help if I wasn’t in my slippers, no pun intended. I truly can’t imagine spinning, twirling, and leaping on snow or ice.

Almost as impressive as the end results, are the patience and perseverance these talented people demonstrate. They work so hard, for so long in between each Olympics, knowing all the time that at some point, not too far in the future, they may become too old to be competitive. They train, and train some more, with the clock ticking and they wait for that next moment to compete. They practically fly down snowy hills and off cliff like jumps. Their few moments to perform at the top of their game, pass with the blink of an eye. When they finish they start talking about being back in four years. Four years of incredible dedication and hard work for one more fleeting chance.

So what is it they know that most of us don’t? Somewhere along the way they have learned that it takes time to reach your goals. They’ve found their passion and use their gifts, but they’ve learned to wait. It’s a time of productive waiting, but they wait for their next chance. More importantly, they see the waiting as part of the process.

In faith, like so many things, it’s easy to want immediate gratification. We want to believe, and we want God’s help, but we want it on our schedule. We’re not good at waiting. We go to church and when we don’t feel different the next day, and our problems are still there, we wonder if we should bother to go back the next Sunday. Are we so important that we can’t wait for God? Are we so special that we should expect God to work on our schedule? Are we expecting the church to solve our problems so we won’t have to? Are we unwilling to give church more than one chance? Do we use our impatience as our excuse for not having faith?

The Winter Olympics will end soon, and hundreds of talented devoted athletes will go home without medals. They weren’t the best in the group this time around, but compared to the majority of us non-athletes they’re still extraordinary. They will return to their homes, their training centers, their families, and their jobs to prepare for that next time.  I can hardly wait!

Have a great week!  :o)    Linda