" Wait. "

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;

Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.

I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate . . .

And the Master so gently said, “Wait.”

“Wait? You say, wait?” my indignant reply.

“Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!

Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?

By faith I have asked, and I’m claiming your Word.

My future and all to which I relate

Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to wait?

I’m needing a ‘yes’, a go-ahead sign,

Or even a ‘no’ to which I can resign.

“You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe,

We need but to ask, and we shall receive.

And Lord I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:

I’m weary of asking! I need a reply.”

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate,

As my Master replied again, “Wait.”

So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,

And grumbled to God, “So, I’m waiting for what?”

He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine . . .

and He tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.

I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.

I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.

“I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.

You’d have what you want, but you wouldn’t know Me.

You’d not know the depth of my love for each saint.

You’d not know the power that I give to the faint.

“You’d not learn to see through clouds of despair;

You’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there.

You’d not know the joy of resting in Me

When darkness and silence are all you can see.

“You’d never experience the fullness of love

When the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.

You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,

But you’d not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

“The glow of my comfort late into the night,

The faith that I give when you walk without sight.

The depth that’s beyond getting just what you ask

From an infinite God who makes what you have last.

“You’d never know, should your pain quickly flee,

What it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.

Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,

But, oh, the loss, if you missed what I’m doing in you.

“So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see

That the greatest of gifts is to truly know me.

And though oft My answers seem terribly late,

My most precious answer of all is still . . . Wait.”

- by Russell Kelfer

~ * ~

Terkadang dalam hidup ini, kita mengalami kepahitan yang begitu berat. 

Yang membuat kita bertanya, "Why? I don't deserve this."

Yang membuat kita begitu tersakiti, putus asa...

The aching that breaks us so. That makes us don't even want to believe anymore.

Tapi terkadang kita perlu melihat kembali, jauh ke dalam ke kepahitan itu. Karena Tuhan memberikan satu pelajaran tersembunyi disana. Lewat kepahitan itu, kita bertumbuh. Lewat kepahitan itu, kita disadarkan. Lewat kepahitan itu, kita ditempa.

Untuk satu rencana, yang menguatkan kita, dan memuliakan-Nya.

Butuh waktu, dan hati yang besar, yang mau untuk dididik untuk melihat pencerahan di balik setiap kepahitan. Dan Tuhan menginginkan kita, untuk sabar menunggu. 

Karena dalam waktu-Nya, kita akan tahu.