We all know what it's like to feel like it's taking forever to see some light at the end of our proverbial tunnel. Our tunnels can be fairly short or interminable, but it's the waiting that is so hard. Waiting...it's just so...wasteful. It's a time where we want time to pass, where we wish our life away.
I think it was no coincidence that I noticed in church this morning how many verses were flashed on the screen that had to do with waiting, the same day that I went to see Les Miserables at the movies. Talk about waiting. The misery in the movie depicted a lifetime of waiting to get out of an existence so miserable most of us can't even begin to imagine. For many in that time of history their light at the end of the tunnel truly didn't come until the next life. The last words of the whole movie were, "Tomorrow will come", as you finally saw a happy ending to all the lives that were finally in victory in the next world. It was a tragic, dark story at long last turned to good: of how God's love shown to one man resulted in him showing love to others through sacrifice and mercy.
How like that should be in our lives. Knowing that we have been shown love and mercy by our creator, how we should spend our lives passing it on, despite hardship or sacrifice. Instead, it seems we focus on the light at the end of the tunnel instead of learning to tunnel-walk, waiting patiently for the light, knowing it is there. We simply won't be satisfied until we are out of the dark! We are like pouting children wanting the prize at the end at any cost, refusing to see the need to wait until it is offered.
I like the term tunnel-walking, because that's what life often seems like: walking in the dark, waiting to get through to the other end. But instead of wishing that time away, maybe we should do what Jesus told the disciples in Gethsemane in Mark 14:38: Watch and pray. They had no idea there even was a light at the end of their tunnel. All they saw was the darkness of their savior being crucified. They didn't understand the promise that He would be with them always. But we have His word!! We know that He is at the end of any tunnel as well as with us through it.
And yet we have such trouble with waiting. Waiting for the flu to get over. Waiting for our prince charming. Waiting for the morning sickness to end. Waiting for the baby to sleep all night. Waiting for the cancer treatments to be over.
I watch some with such long excruciating waits. My little friend who has been in the hospital for 3 months in extreme pain with 2 preschoolers being raised by her parents - will she ever see a day without pain? My mother-in-law who prays at age 92 for the Lord to take her every night because she is so tired of the fatigue of simply living where everything is hard, from going to meals to showering. My divorced friend who wonders if the pain of her divorce will ever end and quit waking her up in the middle of the night.
And yet Isaiah 25 tells us that at the end of our wait "the sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces." And He tells us in Mark 13 to "keep watch...If He comes suddenly you don't want Him to find you sleeping." We're told over and over to watch. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. I Tim. 4:16
So even if our tunnels are long, maybe what we need to be doing instead pining for the light at the end of the tunnel, is to simply watch for the Light. Maybe we don't need to just wait for the circumstances to change, but to watch for what the Lord is telling us in the midst of our tunnel.
Let us like in Micah 7:7 say: But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. Let us also be like the Psalmist who says: Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
I pray that the next time I enter a tunnel I will be less frantic and more quietly waiting and watching - for the light always comes - and sometimes before the end.
Walking in Darkness
The darkness seems so dark.
It seems in will never end.
Why, Oh, Lord will relief
Take so long for you to send?
We beat at the walls
That close in all around.
It seems the light at the
end of the tunnel
Will never ever be found.
How can this serve you?
When I'm so paralyzed
in misery?
How can this be of you?
Why won't you set me free?
And then I begin to understand
That faith without trials
is dead
That true faith is to believe
With no evidence of what is ahead.
And so we learn to watch
As we pray and as we wait.
We know we are not promised a life
Of always a pleasant fate.
But we are promised deliverance
And His presence in time of trial.
And if we watch closely
We know of that there will be no denial.
Though the light may not come
At the tunnel's end.
The light will be with us
If we ask for Him to send
His strength, His courage
To hold up under any fate.
He'll teach us to walk in the tunnel
And upon Him to wait.
