I Will Wait

As many of you know, Mumford & Sons released a new album today. I love Mumford & Sons, and I've loved them since I went to London in 2010. This is their first studio album since February of 2010, so you could say that I'm just slightly excited. I have this thing when it comes to bands that I love where I only like to buy physical copies of their albums, which usually means that, even after pre-ordering, I usually have to wait a couple extra days to get it. So while all of you digital CD lovers bask away in new M&S glory, I'm still patiently awaiting the hard copy that I ordered in July. Just waiting and waiting.

Another thing that I like to do is to wait until the full album comes out to listen to it. Obviously, I can't always go without hearing singles and such, but I try not to intentionally seek them out. I just really like getting a new CD and being able to hear it all the way through, in the order that the artist carefully and intentionally put it together, and not knowing what to expect because everything is new. Try it. It's so much better.

All of that was set-up for this: I just heard "I Will Wait." I mean, I'd heard it, but I just heard it. And, as expected, it doesn't disappoint. In fact, this whole album doesn't disappoint. I always get worried when there's a ton of hype, and I think that if I was a musician, I'd probably be even more worried. But M&S kills it with Babel. Definitely worth the two year wait.

One of the things that I love about Mumford & Sons is that their songs are real. They're poetic and honest and that's just something you don't find much in a world where people like Nicki Minaj are selling records like hotcakes. I like that I can't just listen to a song once and understand it. In a generation full of 140 character tweets and grammatically horrific status updates, it's a wonder that people my age still know how to write things with meaning. (This paragraph seems super judgmental. But seriously, does anyone disagree?)

But back to what I was saying a while ago. I just heard "I Will Wait" for the first time. Now, I've seen two different things written about the possible meaning behind the song, some say it's a love song, while others say that it's a prayer to God. Either way, it's beautiful. And it made me think.

The chorus is just simple, repeating the words "I will wait, I will wait for you" over and over again with their signature banjo in the background. But as simple as they seem, whether they be to his lady or to God, they are far from simple lyrics.

Waiting is hard. I hate waiting. And I'm not just talking about the big stuff. Like, I hated having to wait for my dinner to finish cooking tonight. A girl's gotta eat, and this girl was especially hungry. But this isn't about that. This is about waiting and how much fun it isn't.

There are so many songs about waiting. Like, just put that into iTunes and you'll see. And most of the time when people talk about waiting, it's somewhat negative. We live in an "I need it now" society, and waiting is just an inconvenient reality we have to put up with.

But what if waiting is a good thing? Now, I'm not talking about waiting to go to the doctor when you have the flu. That's dumb. Go to the doctor. I'm talking about waiting for things to happen. Last week, I re-posted a blog I wrote last November about being single and waiting God's timing when it comes to relationships. But I don't think we're supposed to only wait on God's timing when it comes to dating. In fact, I know we aren't. We don't need God to only be the center of our relationships. We need Him to be the center of our everything, including relationships. And when He's the center of our everything, we become reliant on Him with our everything, and when we're reliant on Him with our everything, well, sometimes that means we have to wait. See, God doesn't have the same concept of time that we do. He doesn't need time. He has eternity, which is unfathomable for us. To us, everything ends. Days end, years end, stages of life end, and life, in and of itself, ends. But there isn't an ending to God. So He doesn't need time. And that's part of what makes Him sovereign and us not.

But why is waiting a good thing? I think, and this is strictly opinion, that waiting is good because it's a reminder that I cannot do things on my own. I can't make things happen on my own. I can call myself independent all I want, but in reality, I'm not. See, I've done that. We all have. And I think that makes God chuckle, because He knows the big picture. He knows that as soon as I screw it up, I'll come running to Him. And that's why I think God lets us fail. We have to fail to understand how frail we really are. The Bible talks over and over about how God blesses the humble, and part, or all, of that humility comes from realizing that, on my best day, I am a dirty rag compared to the perfection of Christ - I can't do anything on my own.

So I wait. And I wait. And I wait. And sometimes (okay, maybe more than sometimes) I get tired of waiting.

So I do it on my own.

And it fails.

And then I run back to God upset that it didn't work out the way I wanted.

But instead of chastising me and telling me how horrible I am, He tells me to be patient. To trust Him. To realize that He, the same God who created the entire universe and everything in it, who rules over everything and everyone, is absolutely in love with me. He is on my side and He is working all things together for my good. And that's when I get this overwhelming sense of peace.

And so I wait. And I pray. And I try to remember that God knows what He's doing far better than I ever will. And then, the waiting doesn't seem so bad.