Wait For The Lord

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Wait For The Lord

by Eliza McNelly

This was the hardest Easter on record. Because of Covid-19, our church body wasn’t able to meet in person, and we didn’t get to be with our family. That afternoon, my husband and I had to work through an emotionally taxing issue in our relationship. And then, that night, a tornado ripped through Chattanooga and Cleveland, destroying homes and businesses, causing terror 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 silent, when His presence or responsiveness would have changed everything. In fact, this is part of our liturgy just days before Resurrection Day: we remember Christ in the garden, pleading for His Father to say or do something— anything—and again, as Jesus hangs on the cross, we hear Him cry out to a reticent God. We consider the disciples’ living in silent agony for three days. And yet—and yet!—we know what happens next.

I have a friend who has been through an incredibly difficult season of silence, one that has caused her to 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

now starting to feel the Lord stirring and responding and breathing new life into her. She shared this verse with some friends the other night: “I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:13-14). There is such hope in that first statement—“I shall see the goodness of the Lord”—

underscored by the silence in waiting for Him. My friend’s waiting is turning from bitterness at what seems like God’s absence into a patient optimism of expecting His goodness.

Even though Easter has passed us on the calendar, perhaps we need to remind our souls that as in the example of God’s silence to Christ or the agonizing impassivity of Heaven while Jesus lay in a tomb, sometimes, all we can do is wait on the Lord for what He will do. And so in waiting, we hope and believe that we, too, will see His goodness.

About The Author 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.