CHAPTER 4: LINE UP AND WAIT 2026
Ever wait for glue to dry on something you need to use. You never wait long enough and it always fails, right. Look on a runway airplanes have to wait to take-off, right. They can’t take off all at once. They know they’re going to go, they just don’t know when, but soon and although they’d like to go sooner, they rest in the fact they will be going. There is an order to things it would seem and that order works. Wait for glue to work and it works, wait to take off in line and everything’s fine, the key word is wait. Now in the case of heaven, everybody wants to go, but nobody wants to die. It’s a little tricky because, unlike the airplane, where you know you’re going somewhere, Heaven is unsure.., I mean we hope we’re going there, and we are waiting, but, dying is a problem and then there is the hoping Jesus will take us in, even though we know the scripture says He died for us, we are a little concerned, right? I’ve seen people go into chapter 11. They know they’re going to keep the company, not sure how yet, they can’t take any money on credit, that’s over, customers have left for various reasons, sales are down, collections are difficult, hard to give customers credit when there is no money to fund the projects and yet, for a moment, they are patiently or impatiently, it doesn’t matter, they gotta wait, and begin a process day by day and slowly but surely, because they’re restricted, they operate correctly. No credit for customers, lean budgets, careful payroll choices, and pay as you go suppliers, life gets better as they wait for the end of the chapter and the beginning of their life. The thing is, their life has already started, and at the moment it’s started correctly.
The airplane, while waiting on the runway the pilot checks systems and then the co-pilot re-checks, calibrates weather conditions, navigation and fuel. You know it’s interesting, a pilot in the airplane never says, “hey, we’re ready to go, but I changed my mind, I’m not ready yet, so let’s pull off to the side.” That would be interruptive, wouldn’t it?
No pilot ever says, “you know, I’m tired of waiting, I think I’m going to pull up to the head of the line and take-off right now.” All of that would create major chaos. In this chapter we talk about going correctly, not too soon or too late, right on time, the key word right, meaning correct and on time. Unfortunately, we are a people of impatience and delusion. We believe things we shouldn’t, and in our impatience we go when we shouldn’t.
Nobody wants to wait for anything. We can’t collect money, so we borrow money. We don’t have money, but we buy machinery, sign the document and hope for the best. Easy to do things wrong, difficult for us to do things right. The list goes on in every area of our lives. We over extend ourselves with our health, diet, relationships, we over do. Instead of eating right, got no time, eat wrong, need sleep, no time or money just an advance on family, spirit, God, everything. Give the customer “whenever you get paid” terms, credit, get the job, “don’t know when I get paid, but hey, I got the job.” Pay later, sleep later, sell later, collect money later, taxes later.
When a CEO gets out of bankruptcy, where they’ve had to tow the mark and do things better, they have two paths, stay the course of lean and mean or go right back to giving credit, taking credit and operating the shell game of money here, or money there.
Impatience, entitlement, all in the name of “that’s the way business is done” rhetoric. Bottom line, how many things are done wrong in the name of right? This chapter is about training, patience and order. All of us fall short and all of us should be getting pretty exhausted with doing things wrong in the name of right and paying the awful price, sometimes not right away, sometimes right away, both slamming the future and the present. All because we just couldn’t wait.., gotta go, gotta get her done, gotta move, gotta make it happen, gotta, gotta, gotta.., go insane.
All of you are in training, leadership training, CEO training, God training…, and the more we learn, the more consequences you realize we have. Doesn’t mean you’ll do the right thing. There are people on the phone that won’t be here next year, people that were here last year and not today. They’ve gone back, impatient, impertinent, stubborn and in the end, failed. Many don’t fail, they continue in their ways, the wrong ways. I ask you, is it better to fail or chase your tail, pretending next month will be better. And you do that for the next fifteen years until you drop, or finally everybody moves on including your own family. Some people do it right for awhile and slip back.
The problem with line up and wait, is you never know when this is your last chance for take-off. Do it right, and you’re off into the days adventure. Do it wrong, and “will there be another day?” For some, there is yet another shot, for others there is not. Preparation does not give me the right to jump the gun. We say,
“I think now that I know a few things, so it’s time to spread my wings and fly.”
Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Line up and Wait, is you giving God the authority over your decisions. If a client wants to give you a million dollar deal and payment terms that pay you later, you can’t do it, it’s time to wait and let God show you what’s coming and who’s coming that will pay you on time, correctly.Trust that another contract will come along that pays in full, or you go right back to bankrolling jobs and running out of money. Fight the spirit of fear, greed, and stupidity. The devil is waiting to foil God’s plan in all of us and he lays the perfect trap designed for each one of us, perfectly placed. It’s your choice.
Ephesians 6:12 – “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Can you imagine being an olympic athlete, preparing for years and the time is coming. Unfortunately, the event is not happening for months. The athlete gets antsy for the accolades of the crowd and the excitement of the game. The “impatient athlete” schedules a pre-game “showing”, so the world can see what has the athlete has achieved so far. Impatient athlete gets injured, and now won’t be ready when it’s time to do it correctly in the actual olympics. How is that like life? Well, we do it all the time.
Get a loan or get on the phone and collect monies owed. Take a job that pays or a job that doesn’t. A loan or an incorrect payment schedule is without patience, order or Faith. It is a hail Mary pass in the hopes that it works out.
Deuteronomy 11:26-30 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.
Ephesians 5:15-17 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
There is the opposite of going to soon, as I sort of discussed earlier. It’s time to go and you don’t go. It’s time to take the shot and you hesitate. After taking a zillion hard money loans, at a million percent interest, now in the bankruptcy the Judge says okay, if you agree to pay half of the loan, within the first 24 months, you’re good and you won’t have to pay the rest instead of a five year term.
The 24 months scares you, you’re afraid you won’t be able to do those inflated payments. You choke and lose the opportunity. Instead, the lease company takes back the equipment. You had no problem taking a loan without a second thought, but with two years to plan and save, you can’t make the decision. Without faith, line up and wait, or just don’t even line up.
Psalm 46:1 0 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
C.S. Lewis said: He who has God and everything else, has no more than he who has God only.
(CS Lewis, The Weight of Glory)
I am reminded of a hunter. He spends hours, days, weeks waiting and waiting for the hunt, and then when the opportunity arrives, the hunter has but precious seconds to make the kill, or his family will not eat. He must be quick, agile and accurate, preparation is the key, has he been preparing for this moment. Line up and wait…, not a second before, or a second late. Right on time, take the shot.
In the book of Esther, a peasant woman rose to be Queen. She had to wait for just the perfect time to tell the King of the impending doom that would befall the kingdom. She froze up when it was time to sound the alarm. Mordecai, her watchful cousin, stepped in and said exactly the right thing.
Esther 4:14 If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”
For just just a time as this.., think about it, line and wait, and when you do it right, it’s everything good…
I quote C.S. Lewis. “If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.”
Look, you have done so many things and gotten yourself in trouble, all of us have. You have taken jobs that seemed favorable at the time, instead of jobs that were unfavorable. What is unfavorable? Not giving payment terms, negotiating in good faith, truth and letting the cards fall where they do. What is favorable. Giving the customer whatever they want, even if it means you pay for it upfront and then wait for months to get paid.
And all of us have taken action because we just couldn’t wait for the correct way to do things. To save money, to collect money, to prepare, to plan, instead we led with impulsive behavior. Now we train to do it right. Do we fight it, do we hesitate, do we go back to old behavior, or do we put our faith in God? You see? The lesson seems to be about impatience and hesitation.
1 Corinthians 14:40: “But all things should be done decently and in order.”
As the song of the eighties, “should I stay or should I go?” We have done so many, many things that were an irrelevant exercise in time wasting, money wasting, mission wasting. And then when we learn the right way to do things. Patience is uncomfortable. Correctness is not convenient.
The Deception of the Heart: The prophet Jeremiah noted that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9), meaning our own desires can trick us into justifying wrong actions.
It is easy to believe that what is, should be something else. (i.e. should be, could be, suppose to be, used to be, bla, bla, bla, it never ends). It’s important to deal with things as it “IS.” Nothing else, should be, could be, used to be, nothing else, just how it is, take it to God and wait.
Jeremiah 33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
Psalm 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.
Trust Him.
Line up and wait is for those God has prepared and is preparing. The temptation is interruption of the process. Your journey.
You’ve learned that too many sales are high costs for goods and services and tear apart margins, credit terms are a killer, taking care of what you have is tedious, gross income dropping drastically is scary even though better in the long run. Organically allowing your company to grow is not a term wall street uses, doesn’t sound big time. Don’t let the world fool you into the drama.
Let go, line up and wait for the Lord’s careful direction, proceed in Faith, hope and the mercy of God. He has been patient with you, give Him the same.
John 8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Chapter 4 Line Up and Wait 2026, God’s perfect timing.
Ecclesiastes 3:11: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
James 1:4 – “And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Amen.
