Weekly Devotion                           

August 31, 2010

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2010-2011 series

Psalm of the Week

Extended Reading:

Psalm 131

 

 

Weighty Wait

 

“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.

A note about the Extended Reading link: Previous years’ references have linked to biblegateway.com, an outstanding free resource highly recommended by this devotional writer. The link will now take you to Bible.logos.com, another flexible and free online Bible. This change was not made due to dissatisfaction with biblegateway. It simply reflects a desire to expose readers to an additional online Bible. The link will take you to the specific reading—and more; you can scroll in either direction from the selected verses. You also have the option of choosing a Bible version that differs from the one that the writer chose. Note also the links that take you into further development of reading. If you have any comments on this change—which might be temporary—please contact ed.grube@lea.org.

 

 

About the theme:

LEA’s weekly devotionals for 2010-2011will use Psalm of the Week as its theme. Each devotion is based on the lectionary's appointed psalm for the Sunday previous to the date on the devotion.

 

 

Summer 2010 Weekly Devotional Archive

 

2009-2010 Weekly Devotional Archive

 

2008-2009 Weekly Devotional Archive

 

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Elizabeth Williams' Devotional Pages

 

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