The Waiting Place

I have a love/hate relationship with waiting.  I love waiting to start something I don’t really want to do, but I hate waiting for things that I’m excited about.  I know people who look at a job they dread- and they just tackle it head-on.  They like to get it accomplished and get it over with.  I admire them, but I can’t say that I am one of them.  Papers that are easy to grade I jump on first, but the detailed tedious assignments are the last pile I attack for the day.  Laundry that has to be very carefully sorted for “gentle” cycle and certain pieces then pulled for “lay flat to dry” is always the last load done for the weekend.  Those three annoying dishes that require extra scrubbing will sit longer, and the mopping will wait an extra week (or two). I’m REALLY good at waiting to the do the things I DON’T want to do.  But the things I want…. Those are hard to wait for. 

I still love Christmas, though these days it is because I love gift GIVING much more than the receiving.  In 10 years of marriage, I STILL don’t think I have ever waited all the way until Christmas morning to give (A) his gift… I just can’t wait.  If I buy a new outfit for a special occasion I end up “trying it on” around the house 3 evenings in a row before the event because I just can’t wait to wear it and have to pair it with just the right accessory combo.  If I am cooking dinner, I am usually still snacking around as I cook because I just can’t wait to eat.  I’m not very good at waiting. 

My husband says I’m very good at making him wait.  For years he has claimed that he has spent half his life waiting on me.  I have always told him that was a HUGE exaggeration… but now that we have been together literally almost half his life my argument isn’t going to hold water much longer, because in all that time I can count on one hand the times I have been ready before him… in the end he usually is waiting on me.  I may have even been ready to go first, but just had to start one more project, or retouch my hair one more time, or change in to one different outfit… It really is a wonder he married me.  When we were dating there were many times I remember I didn’t even come in from the barn to start getting ready for our date until he was already there to pick me up.  He sometimes spent almost an hour sitting in the living room being “entertained” by my youngest sister while I got my act together and got rid of the “barn smell.”  I knew then, the man had the patience of Job and I better hang on to him.

That being said, it is hard for me to hear the directive to “wait” when it comes from God.  I like to know what the plan is, I like to know what is going to happen next, and I like to know how to be prepared for it.  I do NOT like to just wait.  But sometimes, that is what God is asking us to do.  

One of my all-time favorite Dr. Seuss books is Oh the Places You’ll Go (Random House, 1990).  I find it inspiring and motivating and I love reading it to students to make them think about how they can face the future.  But in that book Dr. Seuss describes what he calls “a most useless place… The Waiting Place…”  In the waiting places “everyone is just waiting.”  And as you read the book he cautions the reader not to get stuck there where people are waiting on trivial things without moving forward.  Because my personality type is (in the words of my son) “go, go go,” I have always held kind of a Dr. Seuss attitude toward waiting… it is NOT something I want to get stuck doing.  But sometimes, that is exactly where God needs me to be- in His waiting place. 

Kind of how I picture the waiting place... 

In her book, You’re Already Amazing (Revell, 2012) author Holley Gerth (I seriously LOVE this chic’s books!!) talks about some of the reasons God tells us to wait.  She says sometimes it is because we are weary and need to heal, sometimes it is because He is preparing us for what lies ahead, and sometimes it is simply because He says “it is just not time yet.”  But I love her encouragement when she says this:

              “Whatever the reason, use this time to rest and receive the truth your heart needs for the journey.  You are loved.  God has a purpose for you.  He is working out his plans for your life.”

She also reminds readers that

              “…what it’s like to be in the mysterious middle- of circumstances, of unmet expectations, of the journey from Egypt to Home.  When we’re right in the ‘middle’ of life, we can take comfort in knowing we’re right in the center of God’s hands too.”

Sometimes the Waiting Place is exactly where God needs me to be, I just have to learn to be patient.  I have to learn to listen to why He has me in that place.  Right now, I honestly believe it may be for many reasons.  I know I am weary, I know I need to heal, and I know He has to prepare me for the next leg of the journey- but even knowing that I often need His reminders to be patient through the process.   I know, it my humanity, that waiting is hard, but I cling to His promise:

“He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”   Ecc. 3:11

And I am exciting to see what that looks like as He makes it beautiful… in fact, I can’t wait! 😉