Watching and Waiting with Expectancy

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord" (New International Version, 2011, Ps 27:14).

I heard a great podcast the other day about hope. Jess Connolly (2022), the host, talked about expecting, versus expectancy. It got me thinking about waiting, and how we can wait for what we want to happen, or wait for God. There's a big difference.

When we foster expectations, we watch for certain things to happen. We're tunnel vision. We celebrate when that thing happens, or we get impatient because it isn't happening, or grief-stricken when it doesn't. We get stuck on specifics, and can often miss the forest for the trees. Expectations aren't all bad. Having specific goals helps us take action steps to get there. It's not all bad to want, watch, and wait for certain things. When those things become our everything, though, we can get greatly disappointed.

Waiting with expectancy, however, means looking for God to work. It means watching for how he might work, versus looking for something specific. It means looking up, rather than horizontally at our circumstances. It allows us to catch things that we might not otherwise see. It increases our faith, rather than our fear.

By way of personal anecdote, I remember how badly I wanted to me married post graduate school. I had watched and I had waited, and I had finally given up. I remember so badly wanting community and asking friends to pray for it. Not knowing what community would look like, and waiting on God to work, I started watching for community opportunities. I did worship team at church. I joined friends for lunch. I went to the (post)-college group. I loosened my grip on some of the tightly held beliefs I had about friendships, how to make them, and how to have them. When things started working out with my husband, it wasn't because I had waited in expectation for him. It was because God, in his mercy, had allowed me to see him moving me back in the direction of marriage, even as I no longer waited for it.

Watching and waiting with expectancy versus expectation are hard. It's difficult to let go of the specifics and look for God. It's hard to let go of what we want and accept whatever work God wants to do. Maybe God will mercifully grant our wishes. Maybe he won't. If we believe God's ways are best, though, we have to trust. We have to expect him to show up, and name it when he does. Because ultimately, we're waiting for him to return. We can have that as an expectation because the Bible says it. Other that that, we just have to wait, wait on the Lord, and let him renew our strength (Isa 40:31).

References:

Connolly, J. (2022, May 22). Hope will not put you to shame. (No. 148) [Audio podcast episode]. In Go and Tell Gals. https://www.goandtellgals.com/podcast-episodes/2022/05/26/episode-148

New International Version. (2011). BibleGateway.com. http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/New-International-Version-NIV-Bible/#booklist