WAIT!

“I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope.” Psalm 130:5


Are you waiting?

Currently, I’m waiting for our trip to California to my stepdaughter’s wedding. So excited! I’m waiting on the day I will have lost 100 pounds. (It’s a ways off.) I’m waiting on a check in the mail from Chicken Soup. I’m waiting for that glorious day when I get an entire book by me published. I’m waiting on my husband to see how incredible I am. Wait, strike the last one. It’s happened. :0)

Waiting is difficult. Last week I received a rejection for my writing in the mail, which is not uncommon, and it devastated me, which is uncommon. Not sure why this one got to me but it did. So I went to God and whined. Why? Why not me, God? Am I supposed to write?

God led me to a little book by Henri Nouwen called Finding My Way Home and a chapter in that book called “The Power of Waiting.” It changed my paradigm. God changed my heart.

Here’s some of what God, through Henri, taught me.

• Waiting on God is waiting on His fulfillment in me. It is a process that is based on waiting on something that’s already begun in me. God’s fulfillment, though not complete, is already growing in me like a little seed into a beautiful plant. Waiting on God is not waiting for something to initially happen; it is waiting for God to continue His work.

• Waiting involves patience. Henri wrote, “Impatient people expect the real thing to happen somewhere else, and therefore they want to get away from the present situation and go elsewhere. Patient people dare to stay where they are.” I love that. Do I dare to stay right where I am? Or do I waste time chasing dreams in my mind?

• Waiting is to be active. Waiting on God is not like you’re standing, waiting for a bus. It is expecting EACH DAY to be a step in the fulfillment of God’s purposes. It is believing that God is at work RIGHT NOW. Even as I write this Joyvotion, God is at work in me. Even as you read this Joyvotion, God is at work in you.

• Waiting is open-ended. I find myself full of wishes, especially when it comes to writing and speaking. Henri reminded me that often wishes get tangled up with fear. My wish to have a novel published masks my fear of never having a novel published. That fear blocks open-ended waiting. So I must try to let go of my wishes and live in HOPE. Hope that fulfillment, according to the promises of God will continue to grow within me.

Are you waiting on God for something? How about join me and just wait on God. Affirm what He’s already started in you and look for His fulfillment to grow each day.

Someone asked me last night how my writing was going. I answered confidently, “I’m waiting on the Lord. He’s doing what He wants.”