Guest Post: Wait

Today's post comes from second time contributor Morgan, one of my closest friends and most gifted athletes. I am continually blown away by not only her aptitude for learning new movements, relentless work ethic, and natural combination of strength and grace, but by the  way "she opens her mouth with wisdom, and the the teaching of kindness is on her tongue."

“But if we hope for what we do not have, we wait for it patiently.” Romans 8:25

An athlete’s willingness to wait is a defining factor in their success. In Crossfit, you are introduced to complex movements. The desire is to perform the movement successfully on the first attempt though unlikely. Movements take committed practice, which is sure to expose weakness. Despite frustration, you must commit to practice, and trust that in the mind and body’s perfect timing, the movement will be successfully performed. Would true appreciation of the movement be felt or experienced if there was no trial, sweat, struggle or reoccurring failure? No. Our Father knows this about our nature and that is why the discipline of waiting is a fruitful and necessary journey. Take the athlete who has made countless attempts to PR their snatch at 200lbs. When he finally does so, is it the snatch alone that he values? No. It is the progress he has witnessed, the overcoming, the reaching of a goal. He is not only marked by a 200lbs snatch but more so through his waiting, he has acquired stronger muscles, developed a more confident mind and has strung together a more coordinated movement pattern. He appreciates the true gain: the strength, the confidence, and the coordination, which faithfully produces the desired movement. 

Defined as a verb or defined as a noun, recast as a synonym or placed in a different tense, waiting makes me uncomfortable. The world tells us to go, to move forward, quickly. The Lord says, “Wait on me. Blessed it the man who waits.” Daniel 12:12

Waiting has recently become a more present thought throughout my day - the joy and refinement of waiting, the difficulty, and the discouraging nature. Waiting requires a steadfast hope and exercises a rooted faith. As a Christian, we are required to wait in two areas of our life. First, we are to wait on what is promised to us eternally as adopted children who have placed their faith in God. The second area of waiting I find more difficult: waiting for the Lord’s goodness to be revealed in the land of the living. 
“I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” Psalm 27:13-14

Our nature as humans is to have freely. To have a significant other, a beautiful home, to PR our squat everyday, to hold an esteemed position in a successful career, to complete a workout with unbroken double-unders or to do a muscle up before mastering a push-up. We are motivated by an entitlement. To receive without first waiting delivers a joy that is fleeting. To receive after a season of waiting comes with it not only the desired thing, but a rich joy and appreciation for what we have received. Through struggle we understand the worth of what we have received, because for it we have waited, we have persevered, we have sacrificed. 

As we focus on the object of our affections, God focuses on the journey – He knows this is where life is truly experienced - in the waiting. In the waiting joy, thankfulness, patience, character, hope and faith are matured. The paradox is that when God asks us to wait in prayer and faith, quietly, and with a joyful anticipation the enemy muffles His requests with lies. Lies that our God is unfaithful, lacking in goodness, that He does not hear our cries. The enemy cares to speak these lies because he knows the value of the disciple’s waiting. In waiting, God’s goodness is glorified through the building of our faith. 

Take heart when failure strikes. Failure is temporary. It is merely an invitation to be strong and take heart - to wait. We can be confident through faith that we will receive the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living. Because of our faithful waiting, the gift will be received by a marked joy only possible through the journey, the wait, the struggle in which we endured to receive it.