There's no Comfort in the Waiting Here

Today, when we were in line for lunch, Ben asked, "What are we waiting for?" He was asking what food (or substance we like to think is food) was in the line in front of us. He went ahead to check but I stayed in line and thought about how often I just stand there out of habit. I check occasionally to see what is on the day's menu, but so often I stay in line, get to the front, see the food, and then decide I want pizza. It's a slight waste of time but I usually don't mind since I get to wait with my friends. Today, however, I wondered I thought about how we wait out of habit in other areas of life as well. 

My life has been a series of waiting periods. Waiting to start school, then to get into the upper grades, then middle school, then high school. In high school I thought I was almost done waiting. In college, it would all get better. Now here I am, and I'm still waiting. Waiting to graduate, to get married, start a family, have a career, whatever. I've realized the waiting doesn't ever stop. So maybe it's time we asked ourselves, "What are we waiting for?" Are we standing in a line waiting for Aramark "food" just because everyone else is or because that's what we've been told? If we aren't careful, we will be in that same line our whole lives. It's time we stopped and really examined what the line is for. It is the line of those who have forgotten why we are here, those who have been so caught up in the routine, they've lost sight of the eternal. Do we want to be just another number in the line? Another defeated, burnt out, conquered Christian? Is that the life Jesus called us to? 

True Christianity demands us to step out of line, to stop waiting. How can we run the race with endurance if we aren't running? What's the use of carrying our cross if we have nowhere to carry it to? So, what are we waiting for, an incomplete life that does not follow God's commands? If that is the case, then why are we waiting? James 1:2 says "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." Let's be doers instead of just another number in the line of the defeated.