Title: The Laughter That Refuses to Quit: A South African Waiting Psalm
By Harold Mawela, from Akasia, Tshwane
Greetings, family. Harold Mawela here, writing from my study in Akasia, where the Highveld winter sun cuts through the window like a blade of promise—but the cold outside reminds me that we are still in a season. And if there is one thing we South Africans know, it is waiting.
We wait for Eskom to keep the lights on and now that load-shedding has been absent for over a year, we wait for the bills not to cripple us. We wait for jobs that do not come 32.7% unemployment, 45.8% among the youth. We wait for water that does not flow, for justice that does not arrive, for a government that governs. We wait for the promised land that seems perpetually on the horizon but never beneath our feet.
And in that waiting, we laugh not because we are amused, but because laughter is what happens when hope collides with impossibility.
The Laughter of Impossibility
Picture a ninety-year-old woman named Sarah. Ninety years. Her womb had retired before her husband's knees did. And then God the same God who spoke galaxies into existence whispers to Abraham: "I will return to you at the appointed time... and Sarah will have a son" (Genesis 18:14).
Sarah laughed.
Not the laughter of faith. Not the laughter of joy. The laughter of disbelief. The laughter of a woman who had buried her dreams so long ago that she had forgotten where the grave was. Her laughter was the honest sound of a heart that had stopped hoping.
But here is the mystery family: God did not punish her for laughing. He did not rebuke her. He simply asked: "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"
Let us define our terms clearly. Waiting is not passivity. Waiting is not resignation. Waiting is the active posture of a soul that refuses to quit while the invisible hand of God works in dimensions we cannot see. The Scripture declares unequivocally: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength" (Isaiah 40:31). Not they that sit. Not they that sulk. They that wait—a verb of active, expectant engagement.
The argument can be formulated thus:
Premise 1: God works in seasons and appointed times, not in our anxious timelines.
Premise 2: The space between promise and fulfilment is where character is forged and faith is proven.
Premise 3: Therefore, waiting is not wasted time it is construction time.
Your waiting room is not empty, family. It is under construction.
The South African Waiting Room
I think of the young people in Soweto. Fifty years after the 1976 uprising fifty years after youth spilled their blood for political freedom today's youth face a different adversary: economic exclusion. Four point seven million young South Africans are unemployed. They wait for opportunity that does not come. They wait for a future that seems perpetually delayed.
I think of the residents of Alexandra, marching to City Power offices because they have waited a month without electricity. I think of the families in Joburg's townships who have waited years to be connected to the grid. I think of the mothers in Hammanskraal who wait for clean water that does not poison their children.
And I ask: Where is God in this waiting?
A common objection is: "If God is good, why does He make us wait so long? Why does He allow suffering while we wait?" This objection fails because it assumes that waiting is God's absence. But the Scripture declares otherwise. God was present in the wilderness. God was present in the prison cell with Paul and Silas. God was present in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
The Strategy of the Setup
Here is what I have learned in my own journey, family. I have waited for things that never came. I have prayed prayers that seemed to hit the ceiling and bounce back. I have stood at the graves of dreams and wondered if God had forgotten me.
And then I discovered something profound: Delay is not denial; it is often the disguise God wears while preparing a miracle too heavy for premature hands.
You see, Sarah's ninety years taught her what youth could not: that the womb of impossibility is exactly where God prefers to work. He is not intimidated by your empty womb, your empty bank account, your empty CV, your empty hope. He specializes in the empty. He is the God who speaks life into death, light into darkness, and laughter into barrenness.
Attack is the proof that your enemy anticipates your success. The longer the wait, the greater the warfare and the greater the warfare, the greater the witness. The devil does not waste his ammunition on people who are going nowhere. Your waiting season is your training season. Your wilderness is your classroom.
The Laughter of Fulfilled Promise
The child born to Sarah was called Isaac which means laughter. Not the bitter laughter of disbelief. Not the cynical laughter of the world. But the holy laughter of a promise fulfilled. The laughter that comes after the long silence of faith refusing to quit.
And here is the prophecy for your life today, family: Your Isaac is coming. Your breakthrough is coming. Your job is coming. Your healing is coming. Your restoration is coming. Not because you deserve it, but because the God who promised is faithful.
The near elimination of load-shedding in South Africa after years of darkness is a parable. We endured the darkness. We waited through the darkness. And now the lights are staying on but even that waiting taught us something: we can survive without what we thought we could not live without. We can endure. We can adapt. We can persevere.
Your waiting room is not empty it is under construction. God is building something in you while you wait for what He is building for you.
The Call to Action
Therefore, reason itself, illuminated by Scripture and confirmed in our deepest longings, compels us to acknowledge that waiting is not a punishment it is a preparation.
What must you do?
First, worship while you wait. Do not wait until the miracle arrives to praise God. Praise Him in the midnight hour. Praise Him in the darkness. Praise Him when your bank account says "impossible" and your circumstances say "never."
Second, work while you wait. Faith without works is dead. What you do daily determines what you become permanently. Do not sit idle in your waiting room prepare for the promise. Study. Save. Pray. Plan. Build. The seed you plant today will become the harvest you reap tomorrow.
Third, witness while you wait. Your waiting is not just about you. Your testimony of perseverance will become someone else's survival manual. The laughter that God is birthing in your barrenness will become the soundtrack of someone else's breakthrough.
Prayer
Lord, turn my waiting into worship. Turn my doubt into the laughter of fulfilled promise. I confess that I have laughed at Your promises when I should have believed them. Forgive my unbelief. Strengthen my faith. Help me to see that my waiting room is under construction that You are building something in me while I wait for what You are building for me. I declare that my Isaac is coming. My laughter is coming. My breakthrough is coming. In the name of Jesus Christ, who waited three days in the tomb before He rose in resurrection power Amen.
Final Word
Family, the God who raised Jesus from the dead is the same God who brings laughter from barren wombs and jobs from unemployment and hope from despair. Nothing not 32.7% unemployment, not crime, not collapsing infrastructure, not political instability, not the voices that say "never"nothing is too hard for the Lord.
Your waiting is not wasted. Your tears are not forgotten. Your prayers are not unheard.
The laughter is coming.
Harold Mawela, from Akasia, Tshwane
Scripture Reference: "Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time... and Sarah will have a son." (Genesis 18:14)
Comments
Post a Comment