Thoughts on waiting . . .
Sometimes God calls us to wait on Him for what we don’t understand. Wait in trust, faith and obedience when we lose a job, a spouse to adultery, a child to drugs, a friend to misunderstanding.
Sometimes we wait in expectancy. Wait for beauty to reveal itself in a sunrise over the ocean or the Grand Canyon, when new life struggles to enter the world, to see the story you labored to write published on beautiful pages.
Sometimes we wait in grief. Wait with heavy heart for a loved one to pass from this life to the next. For a leader to reconcile with another because the world is watching, needing to know that integrity is more important than being right.
Sometimes we wait for the right time. Calling on wisdom to propose to a bride, speak in a meeting, share a word of knowledge with someone, tell your child about sex.
Sometimes we wait because fear and procrastination win. When we know we need to resign from a job to follow a dream, to ask for help. Put off calling that friend because you know the conversation will take a while.
Sometimes waiting means a missed opportunity. Waiting to take photos of the leaves that shift chameleon on the trees in the fall or in the spring when azaleas bloom profuse. Only to see what once brought the eyes joy on branches, carpet the ground the next day.
Sometimes waiting opens door for others unexpectedly. When wedding guests decide they were too busy to come to the feast, how their waiting ushers opportunity for the poor, needy, outcast to take their place at the table. Because sometimes opportunity only knocks at the door once. ~Matthew 22: 7-10
As a child, I pray in the stillness of night. My heart beats the bed shaking as I listen to the intruder in my basement. Left alone I pray to the one beside me, over me, with me in the empty house and wait. The only one I know can save me, He answers my prayer, protects me from harm.
As a young girl, I pray for someone to love me the way I watch parents love my friends. Pray and wait. And when I meet my husband, he comes with a mother who loves me the way I ask.
As newlyweds, when we lose our jobs after the wedding, we pray for direction and wait. The answer comes in the voice of a pastor wondering if we might consider pursuing ministry as a vocation. We sit in our car and weep. In the desolation of waiting, when the answer arrives, it is obvious gift.
After seven years of waiting for a child with this man who love me like I didn’t know is possible, God answers prayers with a beautiful daughter. And three years later, a son.
When family grows and we become restless, God shows me a place I have never seen while in prayer. Tells me it’s time to move. And so I wait . . . for a year. My husband receives a job offer that comes with a move and when we look for a house, the realtor drives us through a neighborhood that matches what He shows me that day in prayer. I know it is right, that waiting is good.
Now, when storms brew heavy on the horizon, things look twisted and unsure, I pray and wait. Because in the waiting, He is working goodness in what I can’t see, understand or know.
But I do know this: We are the benefactors of His labor and what He brings is good because He loves me, loves you . . . . And that’s all that matters.
Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly. ~Psalm 5:3
What are you waiting for today?
For more understanding on waiting go here and sit with these words awhile.
Linking today with Ann and Emily.
