Waiting in the Now and Not Yet
Easter invites us into the same holy tension the disciples lived in over 2000 years ago—the waiting space between now and not yet. As Christ followers today, we too must navigate the ache of delay, the hope of resurrection and the everyday practice of trusting God in our own waiting places.
Irish poet, philosopher and priest John O’Donohue writes, ‘At any time, you can ask yourself: At which threshold am I now standing? At this time in my life, what am I leaving? Where am I about to enter?’ This threshold he refers to is familiar to many of us—the space that exists between two points—between now and not yet.
An expectant mother counts down the months—and then days—until her newborn arrives. A job seeker holds their breath for alonged-for position. A patient awaits test results that may change everything and a newly engaged couple eagerly anticipate their wedding day. If you’ve stepped out of what was, but haven’t yet arrived at what might be, you’ll know what it feels like to stand in this waiting place.
As humans, we don’t much like waiting. Waiting for traffic to move. Waiting for our coffee. Waiting for a reply to an email. In our optimised, speed focused, productivity driven world, we’ve grown out of practice with waiting. If it’s not immediate, we assume something’s wrong. Waiting feels uncomfortable, inefficient and incredibly frustrating. And yet, as Christians, waiting sits at the very centre of our faith.
The unhurried way of Jesus
They may not always have been good at it, but it’s easy to imagine Jesus’ disciples becoming well acquainted with waiting. Jesus did not move in a hurry—He lingered, He stopped, He often took the long way. By the world’s standards, He was anything but productive. He took his own sweet time.
But nothing could have prepared them for the waiting place they found themselves in on Easter Saturday. Their Messiah—the One they hoped would restore God’s kingdom—now lay in a sealed tomb following His torture and crucifixion. Their shock, confusion
and grief would have been beyond comprehension. A threshold had been crossed: there was no going back and yet there was no clear way forward either.
Even if they remembered Jesus’ teachings that ‘the kingdom is already here’ (Luke 17:20) and ‘coming in fullness’ (Matt 6:10), it’s reasonable to assume they had a few questions. Where was this kingdom Jesus had promised and taught them to pray for? How can the kingdom be both present and still coming, especially now that Jesus was no longer with them? And the question that many of us continue to grapple with today: if His kingdom is coming one day, how do we wait well?
When an angel told the women at Jesus’ empty tomb on Sunday morning that He had risen, they ran to tell the disciples. It’s possible that when they encountered Jesus on the way, they wondered whether He had come to complete God’s kingdom on earth.
Was the waiting over?
Over the next forty days, Jesus met with many of His followers face to face, speaking with them about the kingdom of God. When the disciples gathered around Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’, they were essentially asking the same question: Is the waiting over?
But, as Luke records in the book of Acts, the fullness of God’s kingdom had not yet arrived. Jesus told them that the timing belonged to the Father alone—they would need to continue to wait. Yet He also promised that they would receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and He commissioned them to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.
Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday was good news—it confirmed that God’s reign had already begun, even though it was not yet complete. It also invited His followers to participate actively in the now, while waiting for the not yet.
How do we wait well?
As people with dreams, desires and deep longings, it can be genuinely difficult to be stuck in the in‑between. When we’re recovering from poor health, when a long‑hoped‑for opportunity is slow to unfold, or when our understandings of our identities, relationships, vocations and callings begin to shift, it can feel as if we are suspended in time.
Waiting stirs the full spectrum of emotions, including fear, confusion, excitement, sadness, anticipation, uncertainty—and hope. Paul tells us in Romans that as humans we are not alone with our feelings; even creation is subjected to the frustration of waiting like the woman experiencing birth pangs.
‘When we’re in-between and suffering, Jesus gets it and He gets us. Jesus isn’t just the one who rose again, He’s also the one who suffered,’ explains Anglican priest Reverend Scottie Reeve. ‘When we are in the not yet it can be tempting to question what we have done wrong. Did I not pray the right prayer? Is this my fault? We blame ourselves and try to find an answer for the discomfort we feel.
‘But when we remember that we can expect to live in this tension because it’s the not yet part of the kingdom, we understand that we didn’t make a mistake, but rather that we suffer in the company of a God who also suffers. In the same way He was present with the criminals on the crosses beside Him, sometimes the answer Jesus gives us in our waiting is Himself present with us.’
Assistant corps officer at Johnsonville Corps, Captain Janet Green acknowledges that the space between now and not yet can be enormously challenging. ‘I see people who are supporting loved ones through long-term illnesses, those who have been made redundant and are waiting for a job and many who are praying for healing,’ shares Janet.
‘It helps me to recognise that this waiting place is often where God invites me to be more like Jesus. God is okay with my wrestling and questioning. In fact, wrestling has the potential to draw me closer to Him and bring a deeper revelation of who God is.
‘I’ve learned to have honest conversations with God and to listen to the way He speaks to me. Admitting to God that I am frustrated, overwhelmed and scared has shown me that God is big enough to handle my feelings. The Psalms and breath prayers can provide us with language that capture the experiences of longing and waiting when we don’t have our own.’
Spiritual director Bruce Hulme agrees that for many of us the ache of not yet can almost feel unbearable. He supports his directees to recognise and name their in-between spaces. ‘Identifying that we’re in this space helps our brains begin to process it. It also reminds us that periods of waiting are a common human experience,’ he explains.
Waiting together
Janet recognises that our needs in seasons of waiting vary from person to person. ‘Some of us want a listening ear and support discerning where God might be in our situation, or where else God might be showing up in our lives. Others want someone to walk alongside them and to say and do nothing.
‘When Jesus walked the earth, He also lived in the in-between—the tension of the kingdom that was present with and through Him, but also not in its fullness and completion. As Christ followers we can expect to live with this same tension today. A church community can come alongside those who are suffering as they wait, pray for them and share different ways they navigate the practical realities of living in a now and not yet world.’
Scottie adds, ‘In our communities we will always have some people living with the burden of unanswered prayers and prolonged periods of living in-between. That’s the beautiful thing about the Body of Christ. We will all be different people at different times, with seasons of waiting and seasons of growth. We can come alongside those who are waiting, knowing that they will do the same for us.
‘I don’t think it’s good for this tension to stay in our heads. Taking action and doing something enables us to participate in the kingdom that is here now can be important for our sense of engagement and purpose. If you experience climate anxiety, what can you do in Christ today for the climate? If your heart breaks for the homeless, what can you do right now to make a difference? When we live in the now part of the now and not yet, we begin to live as resurrection people.’
Not the end of the story
The story of Jesus didn’t end with Jesus’ earthly ministry—it continues now in the lives of those who follow Him.
‘As Christians we live in the very real hope of a big story that God will make it all right in the end, but the stories we consume are often not yet stories, with no hope of resurrection. I think it’s important for us to make sure that we are reading and believing the right stories about the world. Are we dwelling in the Scriptures more than our newsfeed? Resurrection storylines are always going to be more hidden than the death storylines in this world—they are our mustard seeds,’ shares Scottie.
In the midst of waiting, it’s easy to forget that the things we long for are often good. Our attention can shift from the promise to the delay, from the hoped-for future to the discomfort of the in-between. We can begin to live in stories that shrink our imagination to what is visible, forgetting the quiet work of resurrection that begins in hidden places.
Perhaps the challenge for Christians waiting today is no different than it was for Jesus’ followers 2000 years ago. To accept the power of the Holy Spirit, to come alongside one another in community to take action now, and to bear witness to a weary world longing for the not yet.
