What is one word you would use to describe yourself?
This word could be a physical quality, personality trait, or spiritual component of who you are. I have a hunch about which word you wouldn't choose.
Patient.
I've tried this thought exercise with many people, and no one has described themselves with the word "patient." Our culture doesn't help. From DoorDash to two-day shipping to InstaPots, we've done all we can to speed up getting what we want and eliminating delays. We often get frustrated when our flight is delayed or express shipping isn't available.
However, in our effort to make the world more efficient and get rid of waiting, I wonder if we've orchestrated the ways of God out of our lives. After all, to be in a relationship with God is to experience waiting.
Lauren Daigle knows this truth very well. Sitting on a beach, she read the famous words from Ecclesiastes 3: "For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven." After this poetic reflection on life's seasons, the writer beautifully summarizes how God works: "Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time."
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These words have comforted, inspired, and challenged God's people for thousands of years, helping them process the joys and sorrows of human existence. Like a master artist who knows precisely when to apply each brushstroke, God works in seasons and rhythms that often feel mysterious to us. This passage has inspired countless songs across generations, each one helping believers find their place in God's unfolding story.
In a video posted on Aodhán King's Instagram page, Daigle recounts a cowriting session where they worked on a song inspired by Ecclesiastes 3. However, this collaboration stayed unfinished in storage for over two years before King finally pulled it out and pushed "Time" to completion, crafting a confession-like chorus:
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"You, You know me better than I do
You see it from a clearer view in Your time (in Your time)
And You see it like I wish I could
All Your plans for me are good in Your time."
The words of Ecclesiastes 3 and the lyrics of "Time" are examples of poetic beauty. But living through an unexpected turn of events or navigating a season of waiting often feels less beautiful and more brutal.
When your job is eliminated through surprising downsizing - when your spouse wants a divorce - when a doctor identifies a tumor - when a trusted friend betrays you - none of these experiences feel like God-made beauty. The waiting that follows - whether in unemployment lines, marriage counseling sessions, doctors' offices, or awkward silences over coffee - is disorienting. Our prayers often become more raw in these moments as we struggle to understand what God is allowing.
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For centuries, faithful people have taken comfort in God's words to Isaiah: "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts... And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than yours and my thoughts higher than yours."
In my life, I've discovered that control is often the core issue underneath all our resistance to waiting and our clouded views of God's work. Our modern world has conditioned us to expect instant results, immediate answers, and quick solutions. Waiting on God makes us feel out of control - a feeling none enjoy. Yet, to love God with all we are, we must abandon our efforts to control life and surrender to what He is doing, trusting that He makes everything beautiful in His time.
King and Daigle turn this surrender into a beautiful song:
"Time has made a fool of my arrangements
Traded all my planning for Your patience
A wine opened in haste would never age well
So I'll wait on time as long as I am able."
If you're in a waiting room today - literally or metaphorically - and wouldn't describe yourself as patient, spend time with Ecclesiastes 3 and listen to "Time."
Releasing your grip and trusting God's power may not change your situation, but it will transform how you experience God as you wait.
Scott Savage is a pastor, author, and speaker with the best last name in the world. Scott’s writing helps people transform difficult circumstances into places where they can thrive. He leads Cornerstone Church in Prescott, Arizona, and loves watching movies with his wife and three kids. Today, you can begin Scott’s life-changing project, The 21-Day Gratitude Challenge.
