While our pastors, Brian and Shari Dolleman, are away we’re teaching four-week series called the Power of Pause.

This series is all about searching for and finding the value in waiting.

Have you ever been at a stop light behind someone going straight through a straight/right turn option lane? It’s so frustrating. Why don’t they just move over one lane?

How about the check out lines at grocery stores? It’s 12 items or less and you only have 6. But that guy in front of you… Yup, he clearly has 16+.

I am guilty. I am not very good at waiting.

Even as I type these words I can feel the raw blistered skin inside of my mouth after I burned it while eating my pizza before it had a chance to cool down.

Our values expedience, efficiency and instant results and yet God seems unhurried— even slow in the way he works his plan.

We view waiting as a negative, but maybe God has something important for us in those seemingly endless moments.

What life lessons would we notice if we’d slow down and embrace the process?

Maybe waiting isn’t punishment, rather preparation for what’s next?

The Power of Pause is a challenge to embrace and make the most of our time-spent waiting

The Bible is full of characters that had to wait:

• Jesus through the Book of John – repeatedly used the phrase, “My time has not yet come.”
• Simeon – waited for the birth of the Christ child
• Abraham & Sarah – waited (kinda) for God’s promise of children
• Esau & Jacob – Esau chose the immediate (a bowl of soup) over the eternal (his birthright)
• Job – had it all, lost it all, and waited for restoration
• Israelites – waited for deliverance and waited to enter the Promised Land

 

My favorite example of a character that was forced to wait is Joseph.

He was the youngest and favorite son of Jacob and he had big plans and dreams for his life.

As young man he had a vision of his family bowing down before him. He knew he was destined for greatness

Then…

Pit happens.

His brothers full of jealousy and hatred throw him in a pit and leave him for dead.

When their collective conscience catches up with them they retrieve him and promptly sell him off as a slave.

Oh wait, it gets worse.

Soon he finds himself as a house slave and he’s promoted. Soon after that he’s falsely accused of rape by his master’s wife and its prison.

It’s not until years later when he’s finally summoned to the palace and takes his place as second in command in all of Egypt.

His vision becomes reality when his brothers come to visit Egypt and bow before him. They didn’t recognize him with his Egyptian fashion sense and after not seeing him for over 13 years.

To review Joseph faced:

A pit, plantation, Poitphar’s house, promotion, Potiphar’s wife, prison and finally the palace.

Joseph’s life is a vivid reminder of our need to embrace waiting.

Joseph tapped into the Power of Pause.

He trusted God when nothing seemed to be going right.

Joseph waited patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.

Will we do the same?

Will we embrace the Power of Pause?

I hope so. I’m trying to learn how to trust God even when nothing good seems to be happening.

Join us over the next four weeks as we look for and find the value in waiting.