On Waiting Well: Moving from Endurance to Enjoyment When You're Waiting on God

Why Does God Make Us Wait? And Wait? And Wait?In a fast-paced society, we don?t like waiting for anything. Drive-throughs and microwaves expedite dinner while texting and email afford instantaneous communication. Because we?re conditioned to expect instant gratification, we?re startled-even frustrated-when we have to wait. And perhaps we become spiritually frustrated, doubting our faith, when we find ourselves waiting on God.Bradley Baurain invites Christians to reject how society has conditioned us to view waiting-especially when it comes to knowing God. On Waiting Well identifies the experience of waiting as a crucial dimension to loving God, having faith, and following Christ. Your time doesn?t have to become passive, purposeless, or tedious when God seems to be absent or moving slowly. Instead, discover how waiting is actually integral to God?s plans of life and salvation. When we gain that perspective, these seemingly dry times of waiting become invigorating opportunities to strengthen our hope in God and see that He is always faithful. Review Praise for On Waiting WellBrad Baurain has written a marvelous book on the important Christian virtue named in the title-waiting well. The biblical data on waiting came onto my radar screen half a century ago when I composed my first explication of Milton?s sonnet on his blindness, which ends with the line, ?They also serve who only stand and wait.? Having thought about the subject over the years, I can say with confidence that Brad Baurain?s book covers all of the important aspects of the subject. This book turns the prism of waiting in the light of Scripture and careful thinking. The result is a devotional book of the highest order.-LELAND RYKENEmeritus Professor of English at Wheaton College and author of nearly sixty published booksIn On Waiting Well, Dr. Brad Baurain provides a timely challenge or even a call for those of us who find ourselves in a culture of busyness to learn what it is to wait. Our busyness comes out of a value for productivity; Brad raises the question of the potential of what waiting can and does produce in our lives. Rather than being a people who can?t wait for the waiting to be done, perhaps in just such a time as this there is something to be learned in the waiting. An insightful encouragement, which Brad draws our attention to, is where our waiting takes place-God?s presence! And this waiting is not just a side note but rather compared in importance with love and justice (see Hos. 12:6). With a combination of examples from his own life, church history, and Scripture, Brad provides a wonderful invitation to see waiting with new eyes; he challenges us to look beyond our cultural presumptions to see that true faith waits. This book is a call to faith in the triune God, who is faithful.-RICHARD HOVEYFounder and Executive Director, Renovaré CanadaAssociate Pastor, First Baptist Church, Regina, SaskatchewanMost people consider waiting to be the dead space between what?s really important to them. In On Waiting Well, Brad Baurain shows that it is much more. Waiting is a discipline, a holy calling, and the spiritual landscape where we meet God. Read On Waiting Well and discover how God is using the in-between spaces to shape you into a person of faith.  -JOHN KOESSLERAuthor of Practicing the Present: The Neglected Art of Living in the NowVery few of us see waiting as more than a necessary evil, at best ?a wilderness to escape.? But, as Brad Baurain notes, that is our version, not God?s. It is, in fact, a ?discipline,? ?a virtue to cultivate.? We have a choice; waiting cannot be passive since we are waiting for God Himself. Saturated with biblical text, creative treatment of Bible stories, personal anecdotes, and humor, this is a beautiful and wise book good for personal reflection or a Bible study. It speaks to our minds and hearts with fresh hope.-ROSALIE DE ROSSETProfessor of Communications and Literature, Moody Bib