Waiting
Since we moved to South Carolina, we’ve had unimaginable amounts of rain in our small town. It seems that every weekend our plans for outside workdays wash away.
A couple of Saturdays ago, we planned to begin the prayer garden’s center patio area, while also relocating several plants.
Of course, it was already raining when when we awoke Saturday morning.
The plot we’d tilled just a few weeks prior was a mud pit. The muck sucked in our rain boots as they disappeared into the sludge - we had trouble pulling them out.
But we pressed on.
As we trudged around the would-be patio, it was just too much. There was no way to level the waterlogged plot.
But here’s the thing: the prayer garden I want is one that will take several years to complete. And I’m perfectly okay with that.
Sometimes we simply have to wait.
At certain times in our lives we find ourselves standing in knee-deep muck and the way is too muddy and the path too obscured; it is covered in the unknown. Waiting is the prudent option.
Our spiritual lives often bear this out.
We want everything in the here and now. We want to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit because we’ve read about them. Or have a heart like David’s because we long for it so badly.
How often do we want an immediate answer from God, a promise quickly fulfilled, a reckoning of action right now?
He asks us to wait.
But He also waits on us.
He waits on us to make a faith commitment. To genuinely seek Him and His will. To turn away from our selfishness and sin.
Waiting is a requirement of the journey. And sometimes that means confronting the rain and the detours and the haphazard distractions.
This waiting can feel like a significant sacrifice of our time, for we can be slow learners.
But I also imagine that His waiting on us is a sacrifice of time and patience for Him.
Something of great value happens with this mutual waiting.
In faithful confidence we say, I will wait for You, Lord.
In steadfast compassion and grace He says, I will wait for you, My child.
There is purpose in the waiting.
“He who waits on God loses no time.”
Vance Havner
Today is a GOOD day,
Natalie