Friday, August 29, 2008

Wait...


I was sitting in the waiting room of an Smog shop today waiting for my car to finish, when I read the following article. It really resonated with me.... to make it worse, I read until I got to the second to the last paragraph, when they told me my car did not pass! I was so ticked off..at...who? no one. my car? who knows..that I was delayed from getting my smog, delayed from getting my car registered, delayed from all the other things on my to do list for today..... So I needed to re-read this....before I went to the car shop and waited another hour to get them to take my car in for service..and then another hour to get a shuttle back home.

Hope you enjoy it:

Introduction (from "You're Late Again, Lord!" by Karon Phillips Goodman.

"I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope." Psalm 130:5

I have to be, without a doubt, one of the most impatient people our Lord ecer put on this earth. Perhaps you're a close second, or Heaven forbid, even worse. We live, therefore we wait. It seems endless. Forever we wait on something to happen in our lives--to get a job or to get a promotion, to quit a job or to move, to sell a house or to buy a house, to save money or to have children, to start school or to finish school, to get through a difficult time or to overcome a hurt--it's always something. Whoever said "life is short" must never have known the frustration of waiting forever on something tht never seems to come.

Sometimes, our days feel like one long checkout line: constantly waiting, barely inching forward, unable to see the obstacles, doubtful of a satisfactory outcome in this lifetime. And then what we're waiting comes or doesn't, we adjust, recover and move on. But are we any better for the wait? Did we find the purpose the Lordhad tucked so carefully inside. Did we listen to God and learn, or did we just complain about the circumstances?

Either way, when the wait is over, we shift our focus to a new wait, and the feelings are all very familiar. Again, we grow impatient/. The cycle never ends. Through all the delays that we misunderstand, we never seem to get very far from where we started. We stand still on the path that matters most. The waiting is nothing more than a time of frustration. We argue with our Lord over His timing and fail to see that every day is a chance full of purpose--even if we're waiting. Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. (Proverbs 19:21)

Yet we resist, complain, and sometimes get quite angry. Desperate for God's touch, we move farther from Him, weh we should be moving closer. Do you ever find yourself in that kind of cycle--angry, frustrated, and anything but patient with God?

If you do, welcom to the club--the Impatient Women's Club. Our numbers swell daily when we are forced to abandon our normal plan of attack and wait on God. We have become so accustomed to ordering and orchestrating and planning and scheduling that it is incredibly hard to admit that not all is within our control. Many decisions every day are ours to handle, and we get pretty good at taking care of things. We believe we could carry on even better if God would on ly cooperate. We demand the answers we need from Him and yet we hear no response. We question and condemn the intolerable delays in the events we need to happen in our lives and yet nothing changes. Doesn't God know that we need those answers NOW??!

Yes, He knoes, but thankfully, He's smarter than we are. Becaues He knows how hard it is for us to wait, to abandon control and to trust beyond ourselves. He has devised a plan just for us. The basis of the plan appeared many years ago, but it applies so well today, to you and me. God is so clever. Your waiting doesn't have to be unproductive--He knows our workhorse hearts. He knows our need to do WHILE we wait. So when your life is at a standstill over what you can't control, and when you're waiting on answers that never seem to come, God says to use that time to work where you are. God says to learn the art of waiting purposefully. Maybe that's what God had in mind all along. Maybe that's why we wait.

Our stubborn hearts resist the wait, yet there is no neecd. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knwoing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." (I corithians 15:58) We do steadfast and immovable pretty well, don't you think? In this case, the instruction is to "stand firm" and not be swayed from God's work. The instruction is to follow God instead of trying so very hard to hurry Him up.

When we ignore God's work for us , we misuse our valuable time and yet can't understand why we have to wait over and over and over again. You know the feeling. You see the waiting as an inconvenience, but instead, it is a gift. there is no better time than waiting time to learn how to become the disciple God needs and the follower you want to be. Your work during that times is the vehicle that will get you closer to God, if you let it. The Lord, in His generosity and compassion, has already provided everything you need. You can uncover the amzing blessings the waiting brings.

Beware though, because the plan God has provided takes work. It's no quick fix. Wiating purposefully means working while you wait, following God's word and surrendering to His will. It means focusing on His view, not yours. It means coming face-to-face with God, in all His glory and all your humility. It rarelymeans waiting for what you THINK you're waiting for,but don't ever be afarind: the reward is worth the work, and you don't hve to wait (on the work). you can start now.


--------
I hope you enjoy this. So much in here hit me...especially the wait being a gift. :)

0 Things Others Said: