I’ve never met anyone who likes to wait. And yet we spend most of our lives doing exactly that. 

Sometimes, waiting is just inconvenient. We wait for Uber rides, phone calls, sales, vacations, and doctor’s appointments. We wait in grocery-store lines or for packages to arrive. From our toddler years, we’ve waited, year after year, for Christmas morning. 

At other times, waiting involves genuine struggle. We wait for relief from chronic pain, financial stress, or fractured relationships. We yearn for changes in our leaders, our workplaces, our schools, and our hearts. Currently, everyone is waiting for a pandemic to end. And we know all creation “waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19).

Bob Kauflin (@bkauflin) is director of Sovereign Grace Music. He equips pastors and musicians in the theology and practice of congregational worship, and serves as a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He writes at worshipmatters.com and is author of True Worshipers: Seeking What Matters to God. Bob and his wife, Julie, have six children and a growing number of grandchildren.

This post first appeared on Desiring God on Nov. 11, 2020.