Waiting in Wonder Part 1: The Pain of Waiting for Answers to Prayer

Have you ever prayed, and the only answer you received was silence?

I have often heard that God answers prayers in one of three ways: “sometimes God says no, sometimes God says yes and sometimes God says wait”. It makes a great slogan for a t-shirt, but it this really how it is. This explanation seems too simple. It is a prepackaged  answer to a deeply complex question. Life is not this simple. Life is messy, complicated and often painful. But it is also beautiful, redemptive, and filled with wonder.

Waiting for answers to prayer is like sending a text message to the person you have a crush on, and not getting a response until the next day. That time of waiting and wondering if they will respond, drags on ever so slowly. The seconds feel like minutes, and minutes like hours. The silence can be excruciatingly deafening.

No one likes to wait. Whether it’s sitting in traffic, waiting for your coffee to be ready or waiting in line for your favorite ride at Disneyland. Life is filled with waiting and yet we do not seem to get any better at it.