Recently, I was searching for a job after an unexpected layoff. The cycle of applications, calls, networking, and interviews was ponderous. I wasn’t sure how things were going to work out. Prolonged uncertainty and lack of control pushed me into self-doubt and a sense of purposelessness. I felt I was wasting time.
Mark Vroegop has advice for those in waiting periods—for a job offer, test results, or just that perfect parking spot. In Waiting Isn’t a Waste: The Surprising Comfort of Trusting God in the Uncertainties of Life, he gives a roadmap for embracing waiting as an opportunity for spiritual growth.
Reframe Waiting
Waiting for something visible is difficult for most of us. Waiting for what we can’t see is often worse. Vroegop, lead pastor of College Park Church in Indianapolis and a TGC Board member, explains how to redeem our inevitable waiting periods. Covering some of the same territory as Kelly Kapic’s book You’re Only Human, he reminds us we’re finite creatures designed with limitations. We can’t speed up time or see the future. We have to depend on a good God in our “gap moments.”
Vroegop writes, “Waiting on God is living on what I know to be true about God, when I don’t know what’s true about my life” (xix). This requires a perspective shift. Waiting isn’t a burden; it’s a spiritual practice ordained by God for our good and his glory. It teaches us to depend on God every moment because we “can’t buy manna in bulk” (15). Ultimately, waiting deepens our trust in God’s sovereign plan.
Waiting helps us better understand the eschatological phrase “already but not yet.” Believers currently participate in God’s kingdom, though we know the kingdom’s full realization is still to come. Waiting is the basic condition of the church, since “uncertainty, tension, and waiting are how the church began” (84). Waiting, therefore, is an inescapable part of following Christ as we long for his return and for the restoration of all things.
Embrace Waiting
In deft pastoral fashion, Vroegop offers a four-step strategy from Psalm 25 for redeeming waiting. He argues we should FAST (focus, adore, seek, and trust) in our waiting times. This practical framework is grounded in biblical principles and fosters a deeper connection with God. We’re being formed as we wait.
Waiting is an inescapable part of following Christ as we long for his return and for the restoration of all things.
Resigned passivity and hopeful anticipation are radically different. Vroegop argues, “Patient waiting is not fatalistic or pessimistic. It’s the hopeful commitment to seek God’s help creatively and faithfully while staying put” (56). His approach requires believers to engage in the waiting process rather than merely enduring it. Those periods of expectation are filled with meditation on God’s attributes as we pray, read Scripture, and ultimately trust in God’s goodness.
According to Vroegop, the root of our impatience is our desire for control. Our culture is filled with advertising slogans like “Your way, right away.” As a result, waiting often feels like a punishment. But Vroegop flips the script on our culture of instant gratification by showing that waiting is woven throughout the Bible.
Abraham and Sarah waited for the promised child in their old age (Gen. 21:1–7). The Israelites waited to be delivered from Egypt (Ex. 2:23–25). David waited patiently for his coronation as king (2 Sam. 2:1–4). The prophet Habakkuk cried out in anguish, “O LORD, how long?” as he yearned for justice to come (Hab. 1:2). These experiences of waiting aren’t peripheral to the stories; they’re evidence within the biblical narrative of ordinary people being shaped through periods of waiting on God.
The prevalence of waiting in the biblical narrative upends the perception that waiting is an aberration. We shouldn’t see it as divine neglect. Instead, it’s one way God shapes our character, teaches us to rely on him, and brings glory to himself. We should embrace our times of waiting as gifts from God.
Experience Waiting
Waiting Isn’t a Waste is concise. It’s also practical, with appendixes to structure the reader’s meditation on God’s character, in addition to a list of passages from the Psalms that emphasize waiting. Vroegop also provides a worksheet to help readers remember ways God has previously been faithful. That’s an exercise we could all benefit from.
If I’d read Vroegop’s book during my unemployment, it would’ve improved my waiting experience. Anxiety and doubt troubled me. Had I been more deliberate about focusing on God’s character, adoring him through worship and prayer, seeking his guidance through Scripture, and trusting in his sovereign plan, I could’ve spent my time better.
Resigned passivity and hopeful anticipation are radically different.
Even before reading the book, there were moments when I sporadically lived out some of what Vroegop recommends. For instance, when I felt particularly discouraged, I often turned to the Psalms and found comfort in the honest expressions of anguish and trust in God’s faithfulness. But Waiting Isn’t a Waste would’ve taught me to systematically invest that time to become more Christlike. I survived, but I could’ve thrived in that waiting season.
Vroegop doesn’t offer an easy solution to anxiety and impatience amid waiting. But he does provide a pastoral book to help believers redeem the time. It’s an excellent resource for those currently waiting or those who simply know they need to learn to wait well.
The Gospel Coalition