I'm Not a Fan of Waiting

Waiting: being and remaining ready and available for use

I've never really enjoyed waiting. I don't like waiting in line for roller-coasters, I don't like waiting for a table at a restaurant, I don't like waiting on people who are late, and I don't like waiting for red lights to turn green. However, for the majority of our life

we are in a period of waiting.

During my senior year at OBU, my small group and I went through a study called In Transit: What to Do With Your Wait by Mike Harder. I remember thinking that there could not have been a more fitting study for a college senior who was wondering what was next. I was genuinely excited about the study because I remember thinking I know for the most part where I'm headed. Little did I know I was completely wrong. I knew that I had been called to full-time ministry and after just getting back from a great internship at Prestonwood that summer I felt that I might be doing something exactly like that after graduation. I loved working in Women's Ministry and my plan was to apply at churches and then move to either Dallas, Houston, Memphis, Atlanta, or somewhere after I graduated and fulfill my calling.

Planning for the most part has dictated much of my life. I can tell you things that I want to do in 5 years, 10 years, 25 years, etc. I love making lists and I even have lists to make lists. I've planned people's weddings, planned parties, and other events. I like to know what is next and I do not like waiting. The Lord took this study and in essence allowed me to have one big slap in the face. At the time I was a 21 year old single girl who thought I had my entire life figured out. I was going to graduate college, start a job at a church, meet Mr. Right, get married, have 3 kids and then make my family and my church my ministry.

It has been about a year since I began that study with those girls and for most of us our lives have drastically changed. One of them is married, one is getting married in a few weeks, one is doing a job she did not expect, one is currently looking for a new job, one is taking more classes to get a second degree, one is home and not on the other side of the world, one is working while preparing for grad school and one is now in her first semester at seminary. All of us have started different journeys that for the most part we could have never imagined.

I'm still in the middle of this wait and for once in my life, I actually like waiting. I love that in going through that study I learned about three people who spent a lot of their lives waiting. Joseph, David, and Jesus all spent time in their "waiting" period. The question is not whether we like to wait or not, the real question is what are we doing in the midst of our waiting period.

Some quotes from In Transit...

We wait for what's next. We wait for the right person. We wait for the perfect job. We wait for the right time to buy our first home. We wait as people come and go from our lives. We wait when we don't know what to do next. And most of the time, we don't like the wait.

Jesus chose not to let waiting consume Him even though His purpose impacted all of humanity. He was God's solution for sin. You might think that He would have been in an incredible hurry to fix that problem as soon as possible- yet He waited.

The purposes of God are often hard to understand, but He has created us for His good works. Great works, in fact. We are His masterpiece. He values us, and because of that He continually builds into us.