Lenten Devotional April 8, 2022

Scripture

Psalm 130

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD.
2 Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications!

3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with you,
so that you may be revered.

5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.

7 O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
8 It is he who will redeem Israel
from all its iniquities.

Devotional

The Rev. Annie Parker ’13

Waiting—let alone being patient as we wait—does not come easily to most of us. And so much in life requires waiting. There is trivial waiting that pops up in our day-to-day living: waiting in line at the store, waiting to pick up a loved one from the airport, waiting for that present you ordered online to arrive. But there is another kind of waiting, a much more difficult kind that is hard to live through. It’s a soul-wrenching, heart-weakening kind of waiting, like waiting for a diagnosis after a medical test, waiting to hear how a loved one’s surgery went, or waiting for a phone call from a family member we can’t seem to reach.

This kind of waiting is full of questions: how long will it take, what will the answer be, is it a worst-case scenario, will I survive? This is the kind of waiting we dread, filled with the questions we hope we’ll never have to ask.

Lent is a season of waiting. It is a season of watching for God, looking for what God is doing and waiting on God’s kingdom. And it’s not the mundane, “when is this going to be done so I can move on to the next task?” kind of waiting. No, it’s that soul-longing kind of waiting. We wait with more questions for God than answers. We wait and wonder: could God be angry with us, could God have forgotten us? We wait and, with all creation, we groan from the pain brought on by the brokenness of our world. We wait and ask, can God remedy this broken and lost world?

We wait.

And while we still have pain and unanswered questions, we trust in God. We remember the promises God has made to us, and we remember that our God never breaks a promise. We have hope in God, who is a mighty redeemer. Lent reminds us that we must wait. Part of that waiting is joyful, as we look with great anticipation to see what God will do and watch to see God’s kingdom in our world. Part of that waiting is hard, as we still experience the pain of a broken world. But through all the struggles and triumphs, we do not wait in vain, for our God brings redemption for all of creation. 

Prayer

God, in this season of waiting, grant us peace in our hearts. Grant us hope that all our questions will be answered and all creation will be redeemed. Wait with us, as we are impatient and long to know the ending. Remind us of your many promises and your steadfast love for us always. Amen.