Remember & Wait

I came across some new internet lingo this week that made me smile. The term is Maxxing, and it’s all about optimizing every area of life through disciplined habits and relentless self-improvement. There’s Looks Maxxing, Career Maxxing, Wellness Maxxing…you get the idea. (Given that I’m almost sixty, I realize I’m late to the party.)

The goal is simple: get the absolute most out of life.

The spiritual life often moves in the opposite direction.

Listen to the prophet Jeremiah:

I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. Lamentations 3:20–23

I love Jeremiah’s honesty. He doesn’t hide his grief or pretend everything is fine. He names his pain before he proclaims his hope. Connecting with God doesn’t begin with putting our best foot forward. It begins with telling the truth. It begins with remembering. Not just God’s blessings, but our own sorrow. The brokenness. The disappointment. The losses we cannot fix. Then, in the middle of that remembering, Jeremiah recalls something even more important: the faithful love of the Lord has never failed him. God's mercy is not reserved for life's mountaintops. It meets us in the valleys.

Just a few verses later he writes:

The Lord is my inheritance; therefore I will hope in him... It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:24–26

The Hebrew language beautifully intertwines hope and waiting. Biblical hope is not wishful thinking; it is the quiet confidence that grows while we wait for God to act. Waiting almost feels impossible in our culture of immediate gratification. We optimize. We hustle. We take control. God invites us to wait. Waiting is not passive resignation. It is an act of trust. It is choosing to rest in God's character and love.

The Christian story has always been marked by a holy longing…not simply for better circumstances, but for God's presence. There is a deep desire inside all of us to be home with God, to be known and loved by the one who created us.

As we remember God's faithfulness and learn to wait on His timing, a deeper longing begins to grow—a longing for the day when we will finally see Him face to face and all things will be made new. Growing in our faith isn't about optimizing. New mercies are found in becoming people who remember God's faithfulness, wait on God's timing, and never lose their longing for God's presence.