Waiting

I am a terribly impatient person.  I remember as a kid having my mom tell me that patience was a virtue.  I had no idea what that meant, but I figured that virtues were overrated because I thought I was a good kid and, Lord knew, that I had no patience to speak of.  

Need examples of my lack of patience?  I got married at 19 years old.  I took 45 graduate credits in 2006.  I got my driver's license on my 16th birthday.  When my wife was pregnant, I would tell our baby that she could come anytime.  Need I go on?  

So you may understand why I struggle with the first chapter of Acts.  Jesus tells his disciples to "wait for the promise of the Father" (v. 4).  Wait?  Wouldn't it be better if this promise just showed up now?  Think of all the stuff we can get done if the promise were revealed now!

The disciples were on the same page as me.  There was strikingly important work to be done.  You may notice that disciples/apostles get right to this work as well.  They play a scientific game of fate to decide who the replacement for Judas would be.  Good idea fellas, Matthias became intregal to the story of the early church.  (Oh, he didn't?).   

Far be it from me to be critical, however.  I like to be busy as well.  Waiting on God takes patience.  It is, dare I say, boring an unproductive.  There are things to be done.  People who need Jesus.  Tasks to be completed.  And...we...are...waiting???

But as the apostles are trying to fill their time with meaningless tasks, God is making plans in His perfect time.  His perfect timing includes numerous diaspora Jews who are in Jerusalem (those who may not otherwise be in the city).  When God's perfect timing happens, the Spirit errupts.  The believers are filled with the Spirit.  The people are able to hear (2:8) as well as the believers are able to speak (2:6).  Peter becomes an Old Testament scholar and efective speaker.  Ordinary people, 3,000 actually, are drawn into God's kingdom.

Maybe I am wrong, but it seems to me that God's plans were a bit out in front of the apostle's labor.  Sure, it was nice to replace Judas, but what did it accomplish?  Waiting on God's timing, God's Spirit?  Well, that transformed the community.  It created community (2:37-47).  It created the church.

Maybe patience is a virtue.  May God teach me to wait on his timing, and give me the boldness to act when his timing has come and called me to be caught up in it.