As a child, hearing that dreaded word—‘wait’—was like receiving childhood torture. You had no control over it. It usually carried connotations of wasting time, being bored out of my mind, missing out on something I wanted, or missing out on doing anything!
However, this inevitable word is a part of life, and I know I’m not alone in this struggle. In a society that values efficiency and instant gratification, we’ve created ways to avoid it at all costs. We turn to our phones or look for distractions, hoping to bypass the discomfort. Yet, numbing the pain of life, also numbs the joy of living.
Our brains need mental breaks. As an adult, I try embracing waiting without distraction. It’s a moment of peace from life’s intensity. Just like doing something difficult can give us motivation, studies show doing something boring can spark creativity, which is crucial for our well-being.
Society now values ‘mindfulness’ because we’ve overfilled life’s empty spaces with digital clutter, and pushed out room for restorative reflection or rest. Nevertheless, like all things relevant to life, the Bible offers us a radical resolve: not all waiting is evenly weighted (see what I did there?).
Some waiting can also be a time of eager anticipation, an active moment of hope. Often, anxiety feels remarkably similar to excitement (butterflies, anyone?). That’s because it’s our connotations with an experience that can shape our interpretation of it. So, how should we think about waiting? How should it shape us? The Bible’s meaning of waiting changes everything.
One of the Hebrew words for wait is קָוָה (qavah):
- qavah (קָוָה): to wait
- Part of Speech: Verb
- Phonetic Spelling: (kaw-vaw’)
- Short Definition: Wait
That seems ordinary, but wait, there’s more:
- To wait, look for, hope, expect
- Waiting
- to wait or look eagerly for
- to lie in wait for
- to wait for, linger for
- To collect, bind together
- to be collected
The second definition got me. How many times has avoiding the pain of waiting robbed me of the joy of connection? Would I have noticed the old lady struggling for a seat? Would I have shared smiles with a stranger? Would I have heard the pure giggles of delight from a mum and her baby as we played peek-a-boo across the waiting room? Something about waiting, no matter how ordinary, can bind us together to experience the extraordinary.
What if waiting wasn’t merely wrestling with the liminal spaces in our lives? What if we could reframe our waiting? What if waiting was our metamorphosis? What if waiting could change us-transforming the way we see the world, the people around us, and God?
The Bible Project’s clip on Hope, reveals how qavah is not just passive waiting, but an active, almost tension-filled expectation. The word likely originated from a concept of twisting or stretching—the strain of enduring or waiting. It’s related to the Assyrian word for “cord,” the Arabic word for “strength,” and the Syriac term meaning “to endure” or “remain”, evoking imagery of spider’s threads—delicate but strong, binding things together.
Spider threads are no joke. You can watch all the Spider-Man you like, but real spider silk—like that of the golden orb spider—is five times stronger than steel yet 50 times lighter. Imagine if it were scaled to the size of a human—its tensile strength could snag a jetliner! Yet, with this strength, it’s also incredibly flexible. These are exactly the qualities you want when faced with adversity.
“An enemy might defeat one person, but two people together can defend themselves; a rope that is woven of three strings is hard to break.” (Ecclesiastes 4:12)
Pretty incredible, right? Waiting isn’t a problem, it’s an opportunity.
Now Isaiah 40:31 hits differently:
“But those who wait [qavah] on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
So, when we qavah on the Lord, we have a true superpower.
Does your waiting wear you out? Maybe you’ve lost the source of your strength. Maybe you’ve lost sight of what—or who—you’re really waiting for.
Lamentations 3:25 reminds us:
“The LORD is good to those who wait [qavah] for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.”
Next time you find yourself in a moment of waiting, pause. Don’t reach for a distraction. Instead, take a deep breath. You have God’s breath of life in you. Recognise the power of that pause. You’re not alone. As you wait, you’re part of something bigger-surrounded by millions of others. In our waiting, we experience moments that are both ordinary and extraordinary, transforming our lives now and for eternity.
I hope your days are filled with ‘waiting’—not a passive, weary waiting, but a qavah waiting—full of active ‘hope’, trust, and the peace that comes from ‘seeking’ the One who binds us together in strength.