I don’t like waiting. I’ll admit it. Especially when I sense something good just around the bend. Sometimes the anticipation is sweet. Other times it’s almost unbearable. Agonizing. Like waiting in line for Splash Mountain at Disney World in 100 degree heat. (No fast passes included.)
In 2003, at the encouragement of a friend, I sent a package of children’s songs I’d written to a publisher for consideration. I thought it would be rejected within a few weeks. It wasn’t. But it wasn’t accepted either. So I waited and waited. Then I waited some more. Weeks turned into months, months turned into years without ever hearing a word and over the course of time, I forgot that I’d ever sent it.
Last fall I received an email from the editor of said publishing house. He’d been cleaning through his office and found the packet of songs I’d sent eleven years before. Let me say that again. Eleven years! They asked if they could contract me to write some children’s music for them. I was stunned and amazed.
And here’s the thing: eleven years ago I would have said I was ready for that songwriting assignment but in truth, I wasn’t. My songwriting skills are much better now than they were then. I have a better understanding of the craft and much more experience.
We are often so eager to reach ‘it’, whatever ‘it’ is, that we grow frustrated, angry or even give up when God’s time table doesn’t match our own. We wallow in quiet desperation, thinking our dreams will never be fulfilled. Our faith shrinks and oscillates like a fan. We see what God is doing in someone else’s life and grow envious. We compare our life and talent to theirs which, by the way, never leads to happy results. But God is not calling you to be someone else. He’s calling you to be you.
God, and His will for our lives, is not constrained by time or resources. Indeed, He is actually the Giver of them.
We forget that those long stretches of waiting, if we let them, yield tremendous growth in our lives and foster a greater dependence on Him. Don’t despair. Waiting does not mean forgetting. He has not forgotten you. Not at all. Instead He’s working all things together for your good and His glory. (And in His time.)
Maybe you’ve been praying for your stubborn spouse to surrender something to God. Perhaps you’ve been on your knees asking God to help your wayward child. Perhaps you’ve cried hot tears over a broken relationship, chronic pain that makes daily living difficult or a dream you’ve laid at His feet. So you’ve waited. And waited. And prayed. And waited some more.
Take comfort, dear friend. God’s ability is not correlated to the speed with which He moves. You are not forgotten. He is the God Who sees you and when it comes to His will, there are no fast passes allowed.
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