After my mother died in 1968, my father tried to continue pastoring the small church in Pell City, Alabama. Soon, however, the burden of shepherding a church while being a single parent to eight children became too much. In 1969, he moved us all to Florida to be close to a Christian school in Hobe Sound, Florida (and probably hoping to find a wife). To support his family, he returned to his previous profession – home building.

My father was a meticulous man – a good trait for a general contractor. He liked things done in a certain way. He loved order and demanded excellence. This was reflected in our home life with charts put on the walls that laid out the chores that were assigned to each kid. In Pell City, he had built an addition to the parsonage - a well-thought-out laundry room, with shelves containing cubbies for each member of the family. He then tasked my 10-year-old sister Libby – the most orderly one of us – with managing this area. (I found out just recently that he was secretly paying her $3.50 per week to do this.)

These qualities carried over into his business. His crew (which included me after I reached age 14) was aware of his expectations. You didn’t have to work for him long to know that working for Norman Brush meant showing up on time, working hard all day, making sure everything was level and plumb, just to name a few of the traits that made up the ethos of Brush Builders. You also were expected to leave his job sites neat and tidy.

What “waiting” meant on my father’s Jobsite

My dad was pretty good at ordering material and keeping the job running smoothly. But sometimes a delivery of material may be delayed, or we would get an assignment done sooner than he expected. This meant that we would have to wait until the material was delivered or we received another assignment from my father.

When this happened, a new member of the crew would think, “Great, time to take a little unexpected break.” But then he would see the rest of us begin to do something he didn’t think was in our job descriptions. We would start picking up all scraps of wood that were longer than 24” and stacking them neatly in the garage. Anything shorter than that (and any unusable plywood) would be put in the dumpster. After doing that, we would grab brooms and sweep out the house. In addition, someone might also go around the site, picking up any trash, straps or packaging materials and tossing them in the dumpster.

Why were we doing this? Because we knew the heart of our employer; we knew his expectations. If my dad showed up, he would note with approval our proactiveness. If the customer showed up for a walk-through (and they frequently did), they would get the impression of a well-run construction project, an impression that would enhance my dad’s company’s image. Over time, the entire crew took pride in how our job sites were so different from others.

To sum up, until the jobsite was completely clean and neat, our waiting should be active.

Waiting on God

The Bible talks a lot about our need to “wait on the Lord”. To our English-speaking ears, this can sound like idleness or simply sitting in our room doing nothing until God gives us some specific instructions. We especially think this when we are at a fork in the road in our life. We treat it like a stoplight; we’re just sitting there waiting for it to turn green. We want to know what school to go to, what career to pursue, what ministry to participate in or whether to buy a new truck or a beater. So, we wait.

However, the Hebrew word for waiting (qavah) does not in any way convey idleness or passivity. It means looking forward to the future with eager anticipation, knowing that God will intervene on our behalf. It’s really a confidence in God’s active involvement in our lives – while we continue to live out our lives.

Waiting is not stopping

Just as my dad’s crew knew what he expected of them, so we have a clear idea of what God expects of us as we wait for clarity about direction for some area of our lives.

Proverbs 3:5-6 gives us a good framework for waiting: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your path.”

Jesus also gives us good guidance in the Sermon on the Mount, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things [temporal blessings, family, career, ministry opportunities, etc.] will be added to you.”

Based on these scriptures, here are five things to do as you actively wait:

1. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Trusting means relying on God and leaning into His grace and kindness. Trusting also means knowing that your Father cares deeply for you and wants only the best for you.

2. Do not trust your own understanding

We need to align our understanding with God’s heart. The only sure way to do this is to spend time with His revealed Word – both the written Word and the living Word, Jesus the Messiah.

3. Acknowledge God in all your ways

Acknowledging God does not mean that we say, “Hey, God is real and I believe He exists”. No, it means much more than that. It means that we acknowledge His kingship, his rule over our lives. As Psalm 100:3 says, “Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” Acknowledging God means submitting to His ownership of us, his sheep.

4. Make God’s kingdom your top priority

I believe this means becoming an active member of His body, the church. But it also means being “on mission” in your everyday life. You are in an unbelievably honored position; you are an ambassador representing God’s kingdom and His desire to reconcile a broken world to Himself.

5. Live as a loyal citizen of God’s kingdom

You are not only an ambassador of God’s Kingdom, you are also a citizen living in a foreign land. An American ambassador to another country should always live in such a way to represent the U.S. in a favorable manner. This is also our mandate as believers. Throughout the New Testament there are many directives as to how we should live as followers of Christ. This is basically our citizenship manual on how best to represent God’s kingdom. Yes, you may be a citizen of the United States – but your ultimate citizenship is with God’s kingdom.

Wait – there’s more

As you “wait” on God, you will gain strength. While we waited on my father for materials or the next project, we were just doing what we knew he would want. That’s a good analogy for Biblical waiting – but only up to a point.

As the scripture below promises, waiting on God in the right way allows us to tap into something very powerful – the strength of God. We will be enabled to do things that normal humans cannot do. It is basically a time of preparation for supernatural action.

“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31

So, get busy waiting!