Staying Power for Waiting
“As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. (James 5:11)).
Buck O’Neil has written a baring autobiography as if it was just for you. He lifts the rug of our past as he tells of being a black man who played professional baseball before African-Americans were allowed to play in the all-white major leagues. By the time the color barrier was broken in 1947, O’Neill was considered too old to play in the big leagues, as were most of his teammates.
Many of his friends grew bitter about their missed opportunities. Not Buck O’Neil. He brought gold and light out of injustice and despair. At a reunion of Negro league players in Ashland, Kentucky, a reporter from Sports Illustrated asked him if he had any regrets, coming along as he did before Jackie Robinson integrated the major leagues. Here was part of his response:
“Waste no tears for me. I didn't come along too early. God is never late, seldom early, and always right on time. I don’t have a bitter story. I truly believe I have been blessed.” Guess what title he went with for his autobiography? “I Was Right On Time!”
If it had been in Buck’s cleats I think I would have been bitter or at least jaded. I do not wait well nor am I high on perseverance. How about you? What “not yet” are you waiting for that sure seems like a “not ever?” “Waiting is the hardest work of Christian faith,” Lewis Smedes liked to say. To which we might all at times say, “Amen!” Here are two ways the Holy Spirit through the pen of James inspires us with staying power for waiting.
1. GOD COUNTS HONORALBE THOSE WHO STAY THE COURSE.
Mary sings in her Magnificat “My soul glorifies the Lord 47 - and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 - for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.” (Luke 1:46b-48). And so today few have forgotten what God in his great mercy did by using sinful Mary to be the earthly mother of our sinless Savior. And Mary learned to wait on and trust in the Lord. Remember what her last recorded words in Scripture were? “His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you’” (John 2:5). God counts such waiting honorable.
Job was made bankrupt, helpless, and childless. Left standing beside the ten fresh graves of his now-dead children his misery turned to mystery with God’s silence. Not until the thirty-eighth chapter of the book does God break the silence, however long that took. Even if it were just a few months, can you even imagine? Yet he waited faithfully in all that suffering. The result? “The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part” (Job 42:12). Why to this day we know his name. The Lord counts honorable those who stay the course.
2. GOD’S MERCY AND COMPASSION WIN IN THE END.
Our times are in the LORD’s hands. He makes everything beautiful by his clock, not ours. Buck O’neil had it right. You and I are right on time. James had been concerned to help believers to overcome the tendency to react like the world to the injustices heaped on them by the world. The world, by its very nature antagonistic to God and his kingdom, will continue to oppose God’s people. But if you hold onto this truth, “The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” James 5:11b), it will enable you to overcome the spirit of worldliness by refraining from a worldly reaction to the world's injustices. You will trust his mercy and compassion to win. After all, he lived a perfect life for you. He died for you and he has risen indeed - for you!
Jim Wallis writes that when the South African government canceled a political rally against apartheid, Desmond Tutu led a worship service in St. George’s Cathedral. The walls were lined with soldiers and riot police carrying guns and bayonets, ready to rumble. Bishop Tutu began to speak of the evils of the long lived apartheid system - how the rulers and authorities that propped it up were doomed to fail. He pointed a finger at the police who were there to record his words: “You may be powerful - very powerful - but you are not God. God cannot be mocked. You have already lost. In the end God wins. His mercy endures forever.”
Then, in a moment of unbearable tension, the bishop seemed to soften. Coming out from behind the pulpit, he flashed that radiant Tutu smile and began to bounce up and down with delight. “Therefore, since you have already lost, we are inviting you to join the winning side now.”
The crowd roared, the police melted away, and the people began to dance.
What are you waiting on? Wait patiently and maybe even get a little jiggy with it while you wait. God’s mercy and compassion in Christ have put you on the winning side.