Waiting. The word evokes so many thoughts in my mind. Difficulty, impatience, endurance, hopefulness and hopelessness, worry, anticipation, and time. Waiting is a matter of time. Though it has much ado about our time, it is sovereignly God’s time.
In a world of choices and preferences, each person measures time on a different scale. Whether it be their own or God’s, the fact that these differences are real seems to me that there is a conflict. If I am waiting on God’s time for something to occur, but it is dependent on someone else’s time, then what time table am I really on?
I have found that if my waiting goes into the years, and I am aware of the waiting process, then more likely my waiting is due to someone else. Yes, there are things in between I am to do to live a productive life. No one, nor especially God, expects me to wait for nothing. Conversely, there are others that may be waiting on me, too. The challenge of it all is that we are all waiting on each other and we don’t even know it.
My biggest dilemma in these situations is to understand when my waiting is enough. God doesn’t disclose everything. How do I know that I have waited long enough? How do I know that it is time to move on and to move out? Has the situation exhausted itself? Could there be anything more to do or not to do? Am I ready for that time to come?
I have waited for many things in my life. It was hard and difficult. Usually accompanied by frustration, sorrow, and disappointment. It took seventeen years for my most recent promotion to come to fruition. There were many that said “it’ll come.” Those words were so frugal. That’s what you say to get it out of the way and bypass uncomfortable conversations. It’s what you say to appease and move on.
People wait on many things. Waiting for a spouse to come home from military service, a wayward child, a job offer, a promotion, to win gold, to find a marital partner, for healing, recovery, and the next paycheck that cannot come soon enough.
I believe it takes wisdom to know the time. I wish it were as easy to look at my watch and therefore know. The mere fact that I mention this means that it isn’t enough to watch my watch. I need wisdom. God’s wisdom. He is the author of time and is time itself.
I am waiting for other things now. The list has grown shorter but broader. When you have waited through it all and the seeming reward has come to pass, waiting is not a foe. You not only know what it takes to wait, but more importantly, you now have what it takes to wait.
Time takes waiting and waiting takes time.
In His Service,
Apollolina
Copyright 2016 by The Word in Motion
The Word in Motion 