Waiter

Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD! -- Psalms 27:14

It is human nature to cling and hold back – cling and complain.  Let it go, someone says.  You don’t understand, we reply.  If you were in this situation, if it were your child, your spouse, your house, your job, ….  Meanwhile we tell ourselves and anyone who can be cornered to listen how it ought to be.  Endlessly.  I don’t think this is what the Bible means by waiting.  Waiting requires a surrender of potential.

The highest point in Missouri is a place called Taum Sauk.  It seems like it is 1700+ feet above sea level, not exactly Everest, but it a true mountain created by volcanic uplift as opposed to erosion.  A few miles from the peak of the Taum Sauk ridge, on Proffit Mountain sits theTaum Sauk Hydroelectric Power Station.  Water has to be pumped to the upper reservoir of the generating plant, so the power station is really a giant backup battery to supply electricity for AmerenUE customers during peak demand.  Pumping water to that elevation creates a huge amount of potential energy.  We were given an idea of just how much energy on December 14, 2005 when the upper reservoir failed and poured a billion gallons of water down  into Johnson’s Shut-Ins StatePark.  Thankfully no one was killed.  The park superintendent, his wife and children were swept away in the flood but survived.

The water in the upper reservoir naturally sought “rest”, the lowest point it could find.  Its unleashed potential scoured a tree-covered hillside down to the bedrock before it found that rest. 

The intentional, controlled release of potential is beneficial.  If I voluntarily surrender to the Lord’s will and to His timing, I will find my rest in due season.  On the other hand, if I stubbornly cling to my high place, refusing to seek the lowest point of servitude, I will eventually have a dangerous and destructive fall. 

I belong to the Lord.  I am His servant.  What does a servant do?  He waits on his Master.  My potential is surrendered constructively and purposefully at the appropriate times in that service.