It suddenly struck me yesterday that in nearly every aspect of my life right now, I am waiting for something. From the big things like waiting on a job, to the small things like waiting for a chance to pass the ridiculously slow car chugging along in front of me (you have NO idea how many times that has happened to me lately), God has been placing me in situations in which my only option is to wait.
Which made me realize. He's not teaching me to wait. At this point, it's the only choice I have. What He's teaching me is how to wait.
Here's my natural tendency when it comes to waiting: be impatient, stressed out, worried, depressed, afraid, and just about every other harbinger of unhappiness you can think of, until whatever I'm waiting for finally comes along. For those of you who are more visually inclined, I basically sit down in a mud puddle of self-pity and count the days as they creep past.
So you can understand why this period of waiting has left me miserable. You can also understand why God might've seen this recurring attitude as a problem and decided to put me in circumstances that force me to wait. A lot.
This revelation both relieves and terrifies me. It's a relief because I now recognize the purpose behind my pain, and it gives me something to fight for. And it terrifies me because, there's a part of me that isn't sure I can learn this lesson. I'll be stuck behind ridiculously slow cars forever.
Luckily, God's agenda for waiting is much simpler than mine. It consists of a single word.
Trust.
When we are trusting in Him, we have peace, security, and rest. We may not know exactly how our situation will turn out. We may have to wait a long time before our question is answered. Tomorrow is always another step away. But when we are trusting in the goodness of our Father, none of it really matters. Because we know that ultimately, whatever happens next, He will turn it into something beautiful.
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