Waiting on God in Johannesburg: A Christian's Guide to the Long Pause

If you have lived in Johannesburg for more than a year, you have learned to wait. You wait at the traffic light on William Nicol for three cycles. You wait in the Home Affairs queue in Cresta for the entire morning. You wait for Eskom to bring the power back. You wait for the recruiter to call back. You wait for the visa to clear. You wait for the hospital appointment. You wait for the builder, the plumber, the car mechanic, the new washing machine part, the test result, the promotion decision, the apology.

Johannesburg is, in many ways, a city of long pauses. This post is about what to do with the pauses. It is about what the Bible says about waiting, and how the people in our Wednesday Bible study community have learned to wait well.

What the Bible Actually Says About Waiting

The Bible has a lot to say about waiting. More than you might expect. Psalm 27:14 — Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 130:5 — I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. Lamentations 3:25-26 — The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Isaiah 40:31 — But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Habakkuk 2:3 — For the revelation is awaiting an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.

What you notice is that waiting is not presented as a passive thing. Waiting is an active posture. It is the act of holding onto something you cannot yet see. It is the act of trusting that the next thing is coming, even when the next thing has not yet arrived.

Why Waiting Is Harder in Johannesburg Specifically

1. The Delays Are Longer

A traffic light on a Friday afternoon can be forty-five minutes. A queue at the licensing department in Johannesburg central can be the entire day. A visa can be four months. The Joburg pauses are not the small pauses of a busy life.

2. The Delays Are Often Unpredictable

The Eskom schedule is published but is not always followed. The visa appointment is confirmed but is sometimes cancelled. The unpredictability is the hard part.

3. The Delays Are Often Quiet

You sit in a queue and you sit in a car and you sit in a hospital waiting room and there is nothing to do but wait. It is in the quiet that the faith questions come.

How the Sandton Bible Study Community Has Learned to Wait

Practice 1 — Pray for the Wait, Not Just the Resolution

When you find yourself in a long pause, the first instinct is to pray for the resolution. The people who have learned to wait well in Johannesburg have learned to pray for the wait itself. David in the Psalms did the same thing: How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? (Psalm 13:1).

Practice 2 — Use the Wait for Something You Could Not Have Done in the Busy Time

A home affairs queue of four hours is, in some ways, the only time in the week when you will sit still for four hours. Read the passage for Wednesday Bible study. Read the Psalms slowly. Pray through the prayer list. The wait becomes, in a small way, a gift.

Practice 3 — Do Not Make the Major Decision in the Pause

When you are in a long pause, the temptation is to make a major decision in the pause. The pause feels unbearable. The decision feels urgent. The people who have learned to wait well in Johannesburg have learned to wait until the pause is over before they make the major decision. This is the wisdom of Proverbs 19:2 — Desire without knowledge is not good — how much more will hasty feet miss the way!

Practice 4 — Keep Showing Up

The hardest part of a long pause is the showing up. The Bible study on Wednesday night. The gym on Tuesday morning. The phone call to the friend. The showing up is an act of faith. It is the act of saying, I am still here. I am still waiting. I am still hoping.

A Prayer for the Long Joburg Pause

God of the long pause — we are tired. We have been in this pause for a long time. The visa. The job. The test result. The power. The queue. The appointment. The phone call that has not yet come. We do not pretend the wait is easy. We name it as hard. We name it as exhausting. We trust that the pause is not the end of the story. We trust that you are doing something in the pause that we cannot yet see. Give us the patience of the psalmists. Give us the hope of the prophets. In the name of the one who waited in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights, and who rose again on the third day. Amen.

Johannesburg Bible Study Church meets online every Wednesday at 7:30pm. The Psalms are especially good company in the long pauses. Call +27 77 487 1295 or +27 67 442 4461 to join.