Audio lecture
Waiting
Voice
Waiting
NEWWaiting
Trusting God's character while letting go of the urge to control the timing of life
Following Mark 4, Romans 8, Ecclesiastes 3, Galatians 6, 1 Corinthians 3, Isaiah 42, 1 Thessalonians 5, and 2 Timothy 2, this lecture frames waiting not as resignation but as faith that honors God's timing. We sow and water, but God gives life and growth.
- Waiting is not giving up; it is faith that honors God's timing
- People grow through gentle patience more than force
- Anger does not form life; patience shaped by God's character does
Essay
Waiting is not the same thing as doing nothing. Waiting is not resignation. In many ways, true waiting requires more faith than frantic activity. If we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it with patience. A farmer waiting for the early and late rains is not sitting there because he has given up. He waits because he believes there is life in the seed, and that fruit will come when the time is right.
The background of this topic matters. Right before this, we were talking about love, and one of the central qualities of love in 1 Corinthians 13 is patience. Love is not merely a warm feeling. Love is the capacity to wait with expectation and hope. That means waiting belongs very closely to love. If I love someone, I cannot simply force that person's pace. I must honor the time in which God is working inside that person.
The first thing we need to hold is that the growth of life is not under human control. In Mark 4, the seed grows, but the man does not know how. Life does not move according to our timetable. We want quick results, quick change, quick fruit. Yet God makes everything beautiful in its time.
Romans 8 says that if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Ecclesiastes 3 says that God has made everything beautiful in its time. When these two passages are placed together, the heart of waiting becomes clearer. We do not know everything. We do not know when a person will change, when growth will appear, or when fruit will be visible. But we do not give up because we do not know. We trust God because we do not know.
People are like this too. The more we love someone, the more we often wish they would change quickly. Family members, close friends, spouses, and people in a community can feel especially frustrating. But people usually do not change as quickly as we want. That does not mean there is no change. A person to whom God has given the Spirit will grow and bear fruit. But the pace and the way are not ours to control.
The closer the relationship, the harder waiting becomes. We may be patient with someone far away, but with a spouse, a family member, or someone we meet every week in community, we easily demand quick change. Yet loving relationships need more patience, not less. Marriage, discipleship, and community life become harsh and restless if gentleness and waiting are not at the foundation.
This is why Galatians 6 is so important. Do not grow weary in doing good. In due season we will reap, if we do not give up. This does not mean we drag people forward by force. It means we believe there is a time. Waiting is faith that acknowledges God's timing. When my personality, impatience, or schedule runs ahead of God's timetable, I may say I love someone while actually harming them.
1 Corinthians 3 moves in the same direction. Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. Our work is to plant and water. Parenting is the same. We cannot make a baby grow faster by wanting it badly enough. We feed, protect, hold, and create a safe environment. Growth belongs to life, and life belongs to God.
The example of raising a child is simple but exact. It is natural to wish a child would grow quickly, stop needing diapers, eat solid food, and take care of things more easily. But parents can feed, hold, put the child to sleep, and provide safety. They cannot manufacture growth. Forming people is the same. We do what we can faithfully, but we entrust the growth of life to God.
Isaiah 42 shows us God's character. He does not break a bruised reed or quench a faintly burning wick. God values fragile life. Therefore, we must not quickly judge, discard, or conclude about weak people. As 1 Thessalonians 5 says, we encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, and are patient with everyone. This is not merely about being nice. It is about becoming like God's character.
2 Timothy 2 is also very practical. The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil. Even opponents are to be corrected with gentleness, because God is the one who may grant repentance and knowledge of the truth. Here is the important sentence: change happens within waiting. People do not change well under anger. Anger does not create formation.
Of course, waiting does not mean neglect. We still sow and water. We teach, exhort, and support. But if anxiety and impatience are at the center of all this, people feel pressed down. If we keep scratching at someone in the name of love, or keep shaking the roots in the name of concern, the tree cannot grow.
The story of the tree planter shows this well. A skilled planter does not make a tree grow by some magical power. He lets the roots spread, covers the soil well, presses it firmly, and then does not keep moving the tree. If someone scratches the bark, shakes the roots, and keeps transplanting the tree out of worry, they may call it love, but they are actually harming the tree.
The sharp edge of Guo Tuotuo's story is exactly here. He does not claim to have the power to make trees live long. He simply follows the nature of the tree: let the roots spread, settle the soil, and after planting, stop disturbing it. Others say they love the tree, but they check it morning and evening. Some even scratch the bark to see if it is alive and shake the roots to test the soil. At that moment, love becomes harm.
This story connects to politics, education, shepherding, and family. Leaders may say they love the people, but if they command too much, summon them constantly, and keep pushing them, the people have no space to live their own lives. It is like shaking the roots when the tree needs to grow. Life-giving leadership is not leadership without concern; it is leadership that knows how to make room for life to grow.
People are the same. We must learn to wait. We must learn patience. We must give room for God to do God's work inside a person. If we believe that He who began a good work will bring it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus, we can love with gentleness rather than drive people with impatience.
In the end, waiting is a way of participating in God's character. God has waited for us this way, and He still deals with us this way. Therefore, when we deal with people, we should value fragile life, refuse to use anger as our tool of change, trust God's timing, and remain faithful in planting and watering. Waiting is not weakness. It is faith.
Content Notes
1. Waiting is not giving up
Waiting is not hopeless resignation. It is standing in faith because God is working where we cannot yet see. A farmer waits for rain not because there is nothing to do, but because he believes there is life in the seed.
2. Life cannot be controlled by human hands
Just as we cannot fully explain how a seed sprouts and grows, we cannot manipulate a person's inner growth. We can create an environment and offer help, but we cannot force the exact moment when the heart opens and faith matures.
3. Waiting is faith that honors God's timing
When results do not come according to my schedule, anxiety rises. But God has His own timetable. Waiting is not a lack of direction; it is laying my timetable before God's timing.
4. If we do not give up, we will reap in due season
Galatians 6 warns us not to grow weary in doing good. The great temptation is to lose heart when fruit is not immediately visible. Waiting means continuing to sow, water, and love without surrendering to discouragement.
5. Our role is to plant and water
Paul planted and Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. This humbles every parent, leader, and minister. We are stewards who care for life, not owners who can command growth.
6. People grow through gentleness more than force
2 Timothy teaches that the Lord's servant must be gentle and patient. Instruction matters, but pressure cannot create deep repentance or maturity. God grants repentance; we teach and guide without crushing people.
7. Valuing fragile life reflects God's character
Isaiah shows God as the One who does not break a bruised reed or quench a faint wick. Weak life is not something to dismiss quickly. The way we wait for people reveals what kind of God we believe in.
8. Anger does not make people change
Anger may seem to produce quick movement, but it often closes the heart. Constant checking and shaking in the name of love can make a person defensive rather than mature.
9. We must create a good environment and wait
A good tree planter lets the roots spread, covers the soil well, and stops disturbing the tree. Forming people requires the same wisdom: provide a healthy environment without weakening life through constant interference.
10. God completes the work He begins
Philippians 1 gives us confidence that the One who began a good work will complete it. Without this faith, we try to finish people with our own hands. With it, we can wait in peace.
11. Waiting is responsible care, not neglect
Waiting does not mean doing nothing. We still teach, encourage, support, and prepare good soil. But our care must remain care, not control, because God is the One who gives growth.
12. The closer the relationship, the more gentleness is needed
We may be patient with distant people but impatient with family, spouses, and community members. Close relationships reveal our urgency. That is why patience is not an abstract virtue but a daily discipline.
13. Anxious checking can harm life
In Guo Tuotuo's story, the painful scene is that people scratch the bark and shake the roots in the name of love. Repeated anxious checking can damage the nature of life itself.
14. Leadership must make room for life to grow
Good leadership is not simply the ability to command and hurry people. It prepares the soil where people can recover their life and calling. In families, communities, and shepherding, roots need room to breathe.
15. Waiting is love that participates in God's character
Waiting is not merely a personality trait. It is love shaped by God's own patience. God does not break fragile life, and He does not abandon the work He began. We wait because we trust Him.
The Story of Guo Tuotuo, the Tree Planter
A readable rendering of Liu Zongyuan's Zhongshu Guo Tuotuo Zhuan, placed here as a picture of waiting and caring for life.
There was a man named Guo Tuotuo. His original name is not known.
Because of an illness, his back was bent and he walked with his body stooped over. Since his shape looked something like a camel, the people of his village called him Tuotuo, meaning camel.
When Guo Tuotuo heard this, he said, “That is good. It is very fitting for people to call me that.”
So he gave up his original name and began calling himself Guo Tuotuo too.
The village where he lived was called Fengle, west of Chang'an. Guo Tuotuo made his living by planting trees. Among the wealthy people of Chang'an, those who wanted to build gardens or profit by selling fruit trees all tried to hire him first.
Whenever Guo Tuotuo planted a tree, whether it was newly planted or transplanted, it lived. It grew large and full, and it bore fruit early and abundantly.
Other tree planters secretly watched him and tried to copy him, but none of them could do what he did.
Someone asked him, “How are you able to plant trees so well?”
Guo Tuotuo answered, “It is not that I have some special power to make trees live long and flourish. I simply follow the natural way of the tree and let its own nature come to completion.
The principle of planting trees is like this. The roots want to spread comfortably. The soil wants to be covered evenly. The original soil is best. And when the soil is pressed down, it should be firm.
After planting in this way, do not move it, do not worry over it, and once you leave, do not keep coming back to look.
When you plant, treat the tree with the care you would give a child. After planting, leave it as though you had let it go.
Then the life that belongs to the tree is preserved, and its nature finds its own way.
So I do not make the tree grow. I only avoid harming its growth. I do not make the fruit come early or become abundant. I only avoid hindering its fruitfulness.
Other tree planters are not like this.
They make the roots curl up, and they replace the soil with new soil. Sometimes they cover the soil too much, and sometimes too little.
Even if some know how to avoid those mistakes, they love too much and worry too busily.
They come in the morning to look, and in the evening they come again to touch. Even after they leave, they return to examine it.
Some go so far as to scratch the bark to see whether the tree is alive or dry, and shake the roots to see whether the soil is firm or loose.
While they do this, the nature of the tree grows farther away day by day.
They say they love the tree, but in fact they harm it. They say they are worried for it, but in fact they treat it like an enemy.
That is why they cannot follow me. What special thing am I doing?”
The person who heard this asked again, “Could your method also be applied to governing people?”
Guo Tuotuo said, “I only know how to plant trees. Governing is not my work.
But living in the countryside, I have noticed that those who govern people like to issue too many commands. On the outside, it looks as though they love the people very much, but in the end it harms them.
Morning and evening, officials come and shout, ‘This is the order of the government. Hurry your plowing. Work hard at planting. Push the harvest. Spin thread early. Weave cloth early. Raise your children well, and take good care of your chickens and pigs.’
They beat drums to gather people and strike wood to call them.
People like us must even stop eating breakfast and dinner in order to receive the officials. Then there is not a moment left to rest.
How, then, can our livelihood flourish, and how can our nature be at ease?
This is why the people become sick and slow.
When I look at this, does governing people not have something in common with my planting of trees?”
The questioner said, “Ah, this is excellent. I asked about the way to care for trees, and I received the way to care for people.”
So this matter was written down as a warning for officials.