Trusting God as we wait for resurrection

“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”

1 Corinthians 13:12-13

Sometimes I forget that we came in after the story had all played out. Mary was on the way to the tomb. The disciples were confused and feeling beside themselves with grief…and all of Jerusalem was probably thinking they had successfully put the Son of God six feet under….as if he was nothing more than a fraud. 

Oh how wrong they were, and oh how we get sidelined with the wrong plot line.

They didn’t know the whole story because they were living the story. And unbeknownst to them God was working even when the story seemed darkest. He was working in their grief. He was working in their confusion. And in their finite-ness, they had little understanding about how resurrection was the greatest plot twist ever. The funny thing is, we’re often just as guilty to remember the greatest plot twist ourselves. We’re tempted to get lost  halfway through the unfolding and forget the invitation to journey with God through the story. We also forget that God is working on us as we wait, and forget to remember the goodness of the author as he writes our story today.

I don’t know why God waited 3 days to raise Jesus from the dead, but the reality is, he did. The point is not just to rush through the sorrow of Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday, (as if Saturday never occurred) but to remember there is a purpose in what God is writing, even in our Saturdays. God is with us in the waiting of the in-between. In the place of unknowing. In moments, hours, and days of struggling for our breakthrough, and waiting for the manifestation of the resurrection, not just the hope that it will come. 

We don’t just rush from point A to Point C but remember that point B is essential to our expedition.

When our Saturday hours play out their strongest,  we remember God was, and is, at work. Even though resurrection was coming, there is still purpose in waiting through it. 

So if waiting was good enough for God, and good enough for Jesus, why is it so hard for us? Because things that take time, and have an undeniable purpose often make us want to fast forward how the plot plays out. Instead, we learn the purpose of the wait.

In the waiting we grieve.

In the waiting, we build trust. 

In the waiting we remember to hope.

In the waiting we’re reminded that we are not in control.

In the waiting we learn that trusting God isn’t just important, it’s essential.

Our Father doesn’t do anything foolishly. He isn’t up to no good, he’s up to all good. 

So whether you find yourself in a Friday full of despair, or a Saturday of waiting, wondering and cautiously hoping….you have to remember, Sunday is coming. 

The day that everything wrong will be made right. 

The day that the hope of redemption becomes reality is coming.

That  eternal hope goes from a prophetic pipe dream, to the reality that we live in…..it is finished, and it is coming. 

Don’t forget sweet friend, even if you are waiting, you’ve entered at a crucial point in the story….once the story is set in motion and redemption is at work, we trust God in the unseen, and in the unknown. In the hard times and the good no matter how long our Saturdays take…..because resurrection isn’t only possible, Sunday is on its way! 

With so much love,

Joy