Does anyone read poetry anymore? I never hear anyone talk about it much. As a young girl, I remember all I wanted to be in this world was a poet. I don’t know who wrote this poem, but it touches my heart because I am once again in a place of waiting, and this season of waiting has been a hard one. I have been tempted to run, but I haven’t. I have been tempted to give up, but I haven’t. Oh yes, I have been tempted over and over, but I sit here and wait with God’s help. Still, let’s say I haven’t fully learned the discipline of waiting gracefully…yet!!! But I am trying.
I hope this beautiful poem, that I originally published in my FB notes on this day in 2009, touches you the way it has touched me once again this morning.
You Must Wait
Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried.
Quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate,
And the Master gently said,
“Child, you must wait.”
“Wait? You say, wait!” was my indignant reply.
“Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or, have You not heard?
By faith I have asked and am claiming Your Word.
My future and all to which I can relate
Hangs in the balance, and YOU tell me WAIT?
I’m needing a ‘yes,’ a ‘go-ahead’ sign,
Or even a ‘no’ to which I can resign.
And Lord, You promised that if we believe
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
Lord, I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:
I’m weary of asking! I need a reply!”
Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate
As my Master replied once again, “You must wait.”
So, I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut
And grumbled to God, “So, I’m waiting… for what?”
He seemed, then, to kneel, and His eyes wept with mine,
And He tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead, and cause the mountains to run.
All you seek I could give, and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want – but you wouldn’t know Me.
You’d not know the depth of My love for each saint;
You’d not know the power that I give to the faint.
You’d not learn to see through the clouds of despair;
You’d not learn to trust by knowing I’m there;
You’d not know the joy of resting in Me
When darkness and silence were all you could see.
You’d never experience that fullness of love
As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove;
You’d know that I live and I save… (for a start),
But you’d not know the depth and love of My heart.
The glow of My comfort late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight,
The depth that beyond getting just what you asked
Of an infinite God, who makes what you have LAST.
You’d never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that ‘My grace is sufficient for thee.’
Yes, your dreams for your loved one overnight could come true,
But, oh, the LOSS if I lost what I’m doing in you!
Be silent, my child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.
And, though oft’ may My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still ‘WAIT.’”
~Author Unknown
“The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.” – Lamentations 3:25-26
