Gò0dNews for Everyone
Wait For The Lord
T
by Eliza McNelly
his was the hardest Easter on record. Because of
now starting to feel the Lord stirring and responding and
Covid-19, our church body wasn’t able to meet in
breathing new life into her. She shared this verse with
person, and we didn’t get to be with our family.
some friends the other night: “I believe that I shall see the
That afternoon, my husband and I had to work through
goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for
an emotionally taxing issue in our relationship. And then,
the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait
that night, a tornado ripped through Chattanooga and
for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:13-14). There is such hope in that
Cleveland, destroying homes and businesses, causing terror
first statement—“I shall see the goodness of the Lord”—
and anguish in our community and beyond. The contrast could not have been more acute. Easter represents joy, life, optimism, and love, but April 12 embodied the opposite. Where was the victory over death, represented by the empty tomb? Where was the hopefulness engendered by Christ’s resurrection? Where was the joy? It felt like at the point in time where I most expected God to speak life into the world, He was silent. But this is not unfamiliar territory. If you are a Christfollower, you have probably experienced at least one time when God was confusingly
underscored by the silence in waiting for Him. My friend’s
silent, when His presence or responsiveness would have
waiting is turning from bitterness at what seems like God’s
changed everything. In fact, this is part of our liturgy just
absence into a patient optimism of expecting His goodness.
days before Resurrection Day: we remember Christ in the
Even though Easter has passed us on the calendar,
garden, pleading for His Father to say or do something—
perhaps we need to remind our souls that as in the example
anything—and again, as Jesus hangs on the cross, we hear
of God’s silence to Christ or the agonizing impassivity of
Him cry out to a reticent God. We consider the disciples’
Heaven while Jesus lay in a tomb, sometimes, all we can do
living in silent agony for three days. And yet—and yet!—we
is wait on the Lord for what He will do. And so in waiting,
know what happens next.
we hope and believe that we, too, will see His goodness.
I have a friend who has been through an incredibly question her faith at its core, yielding anger, agony, and tears. This has been going on for over a year, but she is
38 // July 2020
About The Author
difficult season of silence, one that has caused her to Eliza McNelly works and serves at City Church in Chattanooga where her husband is the student pastor. She likes her coffee black, her music loud, and her waffles from Waffle House.
