Faithful in the Waiting

Scripture Texts: Genesis 40; Genesis 41; Psalm 105:13-22

Joseph is the first of the great leaders raised up by God that appears to stay clear of a major failure in leadership. There are no stories of deception. There are no stories of stealing birthrights. The worst thing Joseph did was tell his family the dreams he was having when he was a young man.

Yet, we find Joseph sold off to slavery, imprisoned for something he did not do, and forgotten about by someone who might have been able to negotiate his freedom from prison. All of this takes place over the course of decades, not days and Joseph remains righteous and faithful to God. Finally, the day comes when Joseph has his chance and even then Joseph puts God first. In the end things work out very well for Joseph and for all the people of Israel because he was faithful in the waiting.

We waited for seven years before we started dating. To be fair for almost all of those seven years we never really considered dating but we knew each other and had a friendship. Through Chrysalis, a spiritual retreat and community for teens, we met and worked side-by-side serving God. It was when we were both lamenting about how hard it was to wait for the right person in our lives that we figured out that we were waiting for each other.

Soon after we began dating it was clear to us that we were going to get married. The waiting began again. To most of the people around us our engagement came very quickly and the time between engagement and our wedding was normal. To us the waiting seemed like forever. There were times when we wondered what we were waiting for, yet we knew that God had placed a plan in our hearts and we were going to follow it.

After the waiting we had our wedding day. It was a glorious celebration with family and friends. Then we had to wait once again, For some reason we scheduled our first night as a married couple in a hotel that was more than two hours away from where our wedding was.

It seems that we have had times of waiting all through our relationship and marriage. This is not that unusual, most couples have times of waiting. During our times of waiting we have been learning that God is at work in the waiting and that our role is to be faithful in the waiting. As we sit here today writing this entry, we are not done waiting, and we are far for complete with the cultivating of our marriage. However, we do know it is worth it to be faithful in the waiting. We know from firsthand experience, that God is faithful when we are faithful in the waiting.