While I'm Waiting...

Psalm 37:34 (The Message)
‘Wait passionately for God, don‘t leave the path…”

I really like that. Everyone always thinks wait patiently for Him. Patience, patience. There comes a time in everyones life when the word ‘patience’ just really loses its appeal. I mean, just look at the definition:

Patience.
1. Capacity for waiting. The ability to endure waiting, delay, or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset, or to perservere calmly when faced with difficulties.

Nothing in there really looks…well, like something you would use in the same sentence as ‘God’. I mean, do we really want to say, “Endure waiting for God without getting annoyed”?
That just doesn’t sound right to me. Waiting for God shouldn’t be something you have to endure, but something you can actually enjoy. It should be something you can have peace through, not have to persevere through. But if you look at the definition of passionate…

Passionate
1. showing intense emotion: expressing intense feeling
‘a passionate speech on human rights’

2. enthusiastic: having a keen enthusiasm or intense desire for something
‘a passionate equestrian’

3. having strong emotions: tending to have strong feelings, especially of love, desire, or enthusiasm
‘a fiery, passionate personality’

Well, that’s more like it! Instead of waiting with endurance, wait with enthusiasm! Some of you may think, “What’s wrong with endurance?” but do you know what the very first definition of ‘endurance’ is? “The ability to bear prolonged hardship.” Hardship?! Is waiting for God hardship? It shouldn’t be! Getting your legs amputated, that is hardship. Waiting for God? No.

Okay, okay, I’m not going to lie. Waiting for God can seem pretty difficult sometimes…especially if it’s a long wait. And it totally doesn’t help when everyone is like, “Oh, be patient, be patient, patience is a virtue.” Because we’ve only heard that 600,000,000,002 times…
But had someone told me, “Oh, be passionate.” Well, that would have caught my attention, to say the least. People say, “Be patient,” and whether they know it or not, they’re really saying, “Endure delay without becoming upset.” Is that really helping? Waiting on God should be a delight, not a delay.

I think that about wraps up my sermon for the night…True, in some cases the word ‘patient’ cannot be substituted, but as far as waiting for God is concerned, I’ll be waiting passionately. <3