10/22/2026
Life is messy. As I write this, I’m sitting with my husband waiting to hear news about his father. My father-in-law had a seizure today and though he has a pulse, he isn’t responding. In the last week, I found out that my Aunt Phyllis has terminal
cancer. She has decided to go home without treatment and wait. We never really know about tomorrow, do we? All we can really do is wait. Waiting can be unnerving. Yet, God’s holy word advises that we wait.
Psalm 24:17 says, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” What does it mean to be strong and take heart while we wait?
I’m not really good at waiting. In fact, I tend to worry over the silliest things while I wait. Thoughts pop into my brain that are tied to my insecurities. For example, when people are late for an appointment, I begin to second guess and worry that I have the time wrong, the day wrong, or maybe our appointment has been forgotten. I begin to mistrust that things will fall into place as they should whether these things run on time or not. I forget that my timing is not the same as God’s. And I forget that the pieces of my messy life will fall into place in God’s time. Bad things will happen. Death will come. Yet so will blessings in this life and resurrection in the next. So, in the midst of the messiness and the blessings and in the midst of death and resurrection, we wait. God is faithful. God is trustworthy. What God has promised, what God has started, God will bring to completion. To be strong and to take heart while waiting, is to trust God. Sometimes I forget. You probably do, too. Today I choose to trust God while I wait to see what God will do with today’s messiness. How about You?
Grace and peace,
Pastor Stephanie Hughes
