“Wait with hope. Hope now; hope always!” (Psalm 131:33 MSG).

It’s early. Wait. Give it time.

Those tend to be phrases uttered, muttered, or stuttered by educators in the first weeks of classes.

Students need time to manage new routines and review all the old learning that makes new learning possible. Not that you’re completely geared up either! There is, after all, that new curriculum that now seems more muddled than magnificent. Glorious flashes of success (or feeble flickers of perception) take time.

It’s early. Wait.

You will, of course, ignore the advice. You will worry if the end-of-the-year product will be new and improved students. You ponder the prospects of beginning-of-year behavior lingering weeks, months, or defining eternity. You want students to develop to their greatest capacity, but filling the void can be so laborious. Yes, the burden of waiting is weighty.

Another weighty burden is waiting for students to mature in faith. Lutheran education works diligently—and sometimes defiantly—to help students grow in faith. It’s easy to forget that even the tiniest particle of faith saves; we want students to have powerful, confident, and unwavering faith—just like…. Whoops…”like teacher, like student.”

The worst burdens, however, are those students who still, still, still don’t know Jesus as their Savior. Just how “early” is it anyway?

Wait.

But not to pray!

Tell God of your impatience. Push Him to be persistent. Then wait for the time He considers right. Hope. Hope always.

If you want to place your waiting in perspective, think of the thousands of Old Testament people who had to wait for God’s promised Messiah. Most believers never saw Him in person. Among those that did, many didn’t recognize Him! And now we wait for the final escape from sin’s pain and perplexity. We have no idea how “early” it is. But we wait with hope.

A culture as rushed as ours needs training in the ability to wait. A society as violent and rebellious as ours needs training in hope. You are the trainer. Be patient with the results but waste no time in teaching the only true source of it.

Never forget for whom who wait. He will indeed come. He’s done it before. He’ll do it again. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe 2,000 years from now. Time is in the hands of our timeless God. You have the highest of hopes.

Written by Edward Grube, LL.D.

Director of Publications & Communications

© 2010 Lutheran Education Association

Scripture quotations identified as MSG are taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.