Wait For It

This post is a part of the Five Minute Friday link up. We write for 5 minutes on a one-word prompt and see what happens. Today’s word is “Wait.” 

My 17-year-old daughter, my husband, and I are reading aloud each night from Jan Karon’s wonderful Mitford series. We’re right now on Out to Canaan and one of the big themes in this particular book is “wait.”

Under nefarious circumstances, several different real estate investment firms from Florida are trying to swoop in and buy up properties in the small, North Carolina town of Mitford. All these properties are meaningful to the town’s beloved Episcopal priest, Father Timothy Kavanagh.

When the mansion of a wealthy deceased parishioner, dear to the town—and Father Tim—needs to be sold and an investment company wants to come in and build a spa, Father Tim says he wants to wait 30 days before making a decision on the way-under-value offer.

When the local bakery owned by a dear friend is for sale because she thinks she needs to move to Tennessee, and she’s unsettled about the whole thing, Father Tim advises her to wait on an offer that is way below her asking price, but the only offer that’s come in.

And then, to top it all off, when his very own parsonage goes on the market because he is retiring—in a year!—a full-price, cash offer causes him great concern, especially when they want an answer immediately. He says he wants no action taken for 10 days.

At this point in the book—we’re on chapter 18—we know what happens with 2 of the 3, but we’re still waiting to hear about the 3rd. I don’t want to give any spoilers, so I’ll just say, waiting is not easy, especially when you’re being pressed for action. Sometimes we just want to jump at what’s right in front of us. But waiting, especially when God is asking us to, is always the best thing to do.

Think about Abraham and Sarah. They got anxious about seeing God’s promise fulfilled, so they took things into their own hands. That did not end up well. (See Genesis 16 for the full story.)

Waiting is hard. There’s no doubt about it. But waiting on God is always good.

On that note, I highly recommend Rebecca Brewster Stevenson’s wonderful book Wait: Thoughts and Practice in Waiting on God. 

 

 

In The Fullness of Time

I’m not very good at waiting. I admit that. Especially when I’m waiting for someone to respond to an email, or a text. Especially a text.

I can’t imagine what the Jews went through for hundreds of years waiting for the Messiah. “How long, O Lord?”

My waiting for a response from a friend, or test results, or a long-awaited desire to be fulfilled, seems pretty petty in relation to a Messiah. A Savior. The Jews were under  terrible rulers for so long. Roman reign was hard and cruel. The Jews must have thought God was never going to show up.

And so many missed it when He did. Expecting a political savior, they missed the One who would save their souls. Wanting an easier life here on earth, they turned away from the One who would give them eternal life in heaven.

Their wait was worth it, if only they had been ready to see God’s answer to their years and years and years of prayers. In the fullness of time.

I don’t always hear back when I want to when it comes to text messages from friends, but may I never miss God showing up.

 

This post is a part of the Five Minute Friday link up. Five minutes of writing on a one-word prompt. No editing. Go check it out!

 

Waiting on God

I consider myself an OK waiter, meaning that if I have to wait for something, depending on what it is, I usually can do it pretty well. Standing in line at amusement parks, waiting for something to come in the mail, stuff like that. But when it comes to the big things–waiting for a husband, to have children, to get a new electronic gadget that I just can’t live without–those things aren’t always easy. And God doesn’t work on my time schedule, apparently. Obviously.

Recently, my brother-in-law Ron lost his job. We’re talking a month ago. Tuesday, he got a new job. Wow. Not only that, it’s a good job, not just a something-to-tide-me-over kind of job. My sister reports that he said it has everything he was looking for in a professional environment. Again, wow.

They were settling in for the long haul. We know people who have been out of work for months and months and months. Is Ron holier than all those other people who just think they’re trusting God, but obviously they’re not or God would have provided for them already? I think not. And I’m sure my sister and brother-in-law would agree.

Isaiah 55:8 says, “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the LORD.” We cannot fathom the ways of the Lord.

I didn’t get married until I was 29. I have friends who married at 19 or 20. I wanted to get married younger. Why didn’t God act sooner?

I didn’t have my first child until I was 35. I surely didn’t plan that one. Unwed teenagers have unwanted children all the time. Why didn’t God let me and David have one of those years before?

I want a red Mustang convertible. Other people have red Mustang convertibles. How come I can’t have one? OK. Maybe that’s not the best question to ask. Forget that one.

Point is, God does not act the same way twice. Just as every person is unique, every way that God deals with each person is unique. As Aslan the lion in the Chronicles of Narnia series is fond of saying, He’s telling us our story, no one else’s. What He does with someone else really is not our business.

It’s His. And He’s very good at it.

Thankful today for:

225. My story

226. potential

227. a new job for my brother-in-law

228. creativity

229. new songs

230. corrective lenses