Worth Waiting For?

Psalm 37: 4-5 "Delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will act."

There are about 6 different applications I can think of here, but once again, I'm talking mainly to singles...

As a group of single guys, we were recently chatting about one of our favorite topics (that would be you, ladies) and one of the guys got that glazed over look on his face as he was describing "her". Yep, that young woman that he was completely focused on and while she was single, she was not reciprocating his feelings. Still, like most of us, he had placed her on a pedestal so high and convinced himself that she was worth waiting for. We've all been there. Heck, some of us are there now! There's a couple of problems with this mindset though.

First, placing another human being on a pedestal like that sets them up as an idol in your mind. When they disappoint you or you finally get tired of waiting on him/her, it's easy to become depressed and bitter from the disappointment. Even if it works out, you've made them a god by your worship. You've got to remember that they are just as human and broken as you are. That time you spend waiting for them to see the relationship the way you do would be much better spent developing a friendship and getting to know them on a much deeper level in an environment where you can both be yourselves. Allow yourself to be be known and to get to know the real him/her.

The other issue I have is that one of you is waiting for the other one. In many ways, you're placing your life in neutral while the other person is still developing to whatever it is he or she is becoming. News flash - you don't control their development. Like the first scenario, you have placed your focus and hope on that relationship and you will be disappointed. What's worse, is you have neglected the development of your own relationship with Christ in the process.

Look, I know she's a phenomenal lady and he's an awesome guy, especially if they belong to Christ. There is a reason your paths crossed, no doubt. God is trying to teach you something or develop your character through the experience. That doesn't guarantee that those paths coincide with each other in your pursuit of Christ from that point forward though. Time will tell, but to stop your pursuit of Christ in order to pursue the object of your affection only shows your ability to give in to the temptations of a human idol.

Take some encouragement from this though: if not her or him, then it is someone even better. We are all in a constant state of preparation for different aspects of our lives, but our Lord who is preparing us has an infinitely greater perspective than we do. I promise you there is no more beautiful a lady than one who loves Christ with all her heart and there is no more amazing a guy than one who pursues Him ahead of any woman. When you have a genuine relationship with Christ, it oozes out of every aspect of your life and people, especially the opposite sex, really want to be around people like that. Remember, He promised to give us the desires of our heart when our heart is finding delight in Him.

One last thing - I love the back half of that verse. Commit your ways to the Lord, trust in Him, and He will act. It doesn't say He'll listen a little closer or put you in the fast pass prayer lane. No, it says He will act. You've got some good reasons to give this up to Him. The only question that remains is if you think you've still got this love thing figured out better than the One who invented it!