Please Wait To Be Seated

T

he sign clearly read, “Please wait to be seated.”  The restaurant wasn’t particularly crowded but the hostess was methodically seating guests in an orderly fashion, making sure all the waiters and waitresses had an equal opportunity to serve the patrons coming into the restaurant. 

Since there was only one couple in front of me, I knew the wait wouldn’t be very long. I began looking over the daily specials, formulating in my head what I wanted to eat.  The meatloaf sounded good but then again, so did the chicken and dumplings.  Suddenly, I noticed some movement to my right and the couple in front of me began moving toward an empty table close by.

Now, the sign clearly told them to wait before being seated and they were reading it when I entered the restaurant so I knew they understood the procedure.  Nevertheless, they moved ahead without waiting for the hostess and they chose their own table.  The hostess came to me, welcomed me to the restaurant, picked up a menu and some silverware and escorted me to a nice table in front of the window.  She took my drink order and asked if she could bring me some bread.  The couple, who chose their own table, had no menus, no silverware, no drinks, and no bread.  They chose a table which was not in the immediate view of the hostess.

The waitress came, took my order, and before long, my food arrived.  The couple now became a little perturbed and called attention to the fact they had received no service.  The hostess and the waitress both apologized even though they had done nothing wrong.  This couple hadn’t received the service they thought they deserved simply because they refused to follow the rules.  They had no one to blame but themselves but they wanted to place the responsibility squarely on someone else’s shoulders.

The prophet, Isaiah, could well have been describing this scene from a local restaurant.  He understood that when we choose to make our own decisions without listening to God or considering what his word has to say, we always run the risk of disappointment, heartache, and grief.  Isaiah 50:11 addresses this idea with the following words, “But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment.”           

  

God’s words here are clear and leave no room for misunderstanding.  If we refuse to listen to his commands, if we insist on having and doing things our own way, then we are responsible for the consequences of our actions.  And consequences there will be!  In John’s gospel, Jesus says that he is the light of the world and that if we follow him we will not walk in darkness.  Yet, we choose to ignore his perfect light and walk by the light of the torches we light for ourselves. 

Our meager torches do not cast enough light to illuminate the path ahead and when we walk without enough light, we stumble, fall, and get injured. When this happens, our first reaction is to blame God for the circumstances in which we find ourselves.  We want to pin the responsibility on him; but we have no one to blame for our predicament but ourselves.

My prayer for all of us today is that we would continually wait on the Lord and walk in his perfect light.  He knows we are waiting for him, he knows we are there, but he also knows exactly where to place us so that we receive his best and can serve others according to the gifts he has given us.  Take courage, stand still, and wait on the Lord.  If not, it might be sometime before the meatloaf arrives!!!