Wait. Wait. Wait.

The Great Fall of the First King

Be still and know that I am God.

Psalm 46:10

WAIT.

WAIT.

WAIT.

Few things irritate leaders, drivers, and world‑changers more than those three words. They cut against the grain of how most leaders are wired and how most organizations operate.

We live in a culture that reveres the leader who makes the tough call, who moves with incomplete information, who acts decisively under pressure. That kind of leadership isn’t just accepted — it’s honored and expected.

This is why waiting feels irresponsible to high‑capacity people. It feels like losing ground while everyone else is advancing.

Waiting requires trust — trust outside of yourself, your instincts, your teammates, your competition, and the latest leadership course.

Practically, the pressure is real. The world does not pause simply because a leader is waiting on God. Deadlines don’t shift, competitors don’t slow down, and teams still need direction. Problems still demand decisions, even when clarity hasn’t arrived.

Into that reality comes the command Samuel gave Saul on the day he was anointed: “Go down ahead of me to Gilgal… wait seven days until I come to you and tell you what to do.” It was simple, clear, and centered — the one instruction Saul had to hold when pressure rose.

Years later, in 1 Samuel 13, the moment finally arrived. Saul went to Gilgal and waited the seven days, but he did not wait for Samuel.

He waited for the deadline but not for the direction.

He made the kind of tough call our culture celebrates — stepping in, taking action, doing something when everything felt like it was falling apart. But it was the one move God had not asked him to make.

And Samuel’s words revealed the consequences of stepping ahead of God. One decision outside God’s timing left Saul’s leadership unraveling from the inside — not because he lacked leadership skill, but because he refused to be led. The consequences were significant.

But now your kingdom will not endure; The LORD has sought a man after his own heart…

1 Samuel 13:14

Learning to FOLLOW begins here, in the space between pressure and obedience. Waiting exposes what leads us, revealing whether we are being shaped by God’s pace or by the best of our own effort. Until we learn to remain in that space, we will keep rushing forward and wondering why our inner world feels unsettled.

Waiting exposes what we trust, what we fear, and what we reach for when nothing is moving. It forces us to face what we’d rather avoid. It is the place where God does work we cannot rush. The obvious question is…

What do we do while we wait? This will be the subject of the next article. You’ll have to wait.

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