HOW LONG MUST WE WAIT?

        I am not good at waiting. I like to know when the wait will be over. The hardest wait is when you don’t know if something will even happen. It’s like when you call a repairman to fix an appliance and they say they will come next Wednesday “between 8 AM and 4 PM." So you wait for that day to come and then wait all day, only to get a late call saying they need to reschedule. Frustrating!

        For ten years, every month I visited Darlene in her home to give her Holy Communion, and we would talk about family and world news. I tried to reassure her how we must trust our Lord Jesus who will help us along the way. And each visit, without fail, she would ask, “Do you think He is coming soon, Pastor?” Then we would pray and I'd give her Christ’s Body and Blood with thanksgiving. Jesus finally came to take Darlene home. 

        For many things, all we can do is wait and depend on promises. Jesus told His disciples He would be leaving them, and they would need to wait for His return which would come, “in a little while.” (John 16:16) When He told them of terrible things that would happen on the earth, they asked Him when these would happen. He said, “No one knows the day nor hour - not even the Son - only the Father.” (Matthew 24:36) 

         With all of today’s dissatisfaction and rioting, frustrating disease procedures, political game-playing, and general lack of common sense among people, we may wish we could know when the end will come. But that time is in the hands of God the Father, not government or clever people whose sole purpose is to make sure it will never come. But there is a purpose for our wait. We are to keep busy praising God and showing His love to those struggling even more than we are.

        Jesus spoke of troubles in the end times, and said we must not give up hope during the wait. “He who endures to the end will be saved,” He promised in Matthew 24. But just sitting and waiting is fruitless. We must make good use of our time helping those who have their own struggles and share with them the hope we have. Waiting alone does no good; we must wait with purpose, faith and hope. 

        None of us should try to create our end. It is far  better that we trust the Creator until He signals our time on earth is over. The Divine Repairman will keep His Word. As we wait, each day let us help and encourage one another In the Faith.

“Surely I am coming soon.” (Revelation 22:20)

Rev. Bob Tasler, www.bobtasler.com