Steve Davis: Finding peace in the waiting
As a pastor, I spend a lot of time in waiting rooms with families who have loved ones in surgery. The one thing I have noticed is that time seems to slow down in a hospital waiting room. When you are concerned for someone you love, it is difficult to wait to hear the outcome of the surgery, and even harder just to wait until you can see them again.
We spend much of our lives waiting, and waiting is rarely something we enjoy. Sometimes it is small, everyday inconveniences. Other times, we are forced to wait through major life milestones and trials: waiting to find the right spouse, hoping to start a family, or navigating the long, quiet recovery from grief and a broken heart. We wait for legal matters to be settled, for wrongs to be righted, or for an answer when we feel completely stuck at a crossroads.
In the New Testament, the Apostle Peter wrote to early Christians who were facing intense hardship and waiting for the return of Jesus. Some began to wonder if God’s promise had failed — if, in the middle of their suffering, Jesus had forgotten them and was not coming back. Peter offered them a radically different perspective on their wait, writing, "But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3:8).
God is eternal and views time differently than we do. What feels like an unbearable delay to us is nothing to an eternal God who sees the whole picture. Furthermore, in that passage, the wait was an expression of God’s grace, giving more people time to come to faith.
In the same way, God has a purpose for the waits we face today. His pauses are never a sign of indifference or absence; rather, they are opportunities for us to grow. Waiting can refine our character, build our endurance, and prepare us for future chapters that He already sees, even if we cannot.
Because of this, we can choose to adopt a new perspective on waiting. Instead of being driven by the clock and consumed by frustration, we can choose to be driven by His presence and find deep peace in His purposes.
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