((This week, I've been doing some traveling - so "Waiting on Wonders Wednesday has turned into Thinking it Through Thursday, hahaha. Thanks for sticking with me!))
I heard a friend say this week. "I don't get it. Why all the talk about waiting? I would rather drive my head through that brick wall over there than wait and stay in the waiting."
Ok. He's not wrong.
I don't know that many of us just *adore* waiting on anything. It causes our character to be, shall we say, refined in ways that don't often bring out the best in us. But waiting is actually really important. (So much so I started this little blog on the topic, and you've made the weekly effort to read it, AND I AM SO GRATEFUL.)
Waiting makes us stop in some way. It is an interruption in life that has the power to cause change if we let it. I've been working here to capture some of the small-ish moments where I feel like God is purposefully interrupting my busy life so that I can see Him and hear Him more clearly. That's what Waiting on Wonders is all about.
This week's pause to consider is, "How are we letting times of waiting refine us?"
We can either see these pauses in our lives as debilitating distractions, and we can be characterized by frustration, impatience, and anger, or we can see them as inspired intersections where the Lord just wants to take our face in his loving hands for a moment and say, "Hey - I love you. Let me show you how much in this little interruption."
Remember, He's always speaking…we just have to slow our lives long enough to actually hear what He is saying.
In the midst of all this talk about waiting and pausing and learning… here's what I've realized recently: I don't wait well. However, suppose I work on training my eyes to see Jesus, ears to hear him, and heart to recognize his voice in tiny moments of waiting. If I do, by practicing His presence in this way, when it really counts, I'll be able to recognize His voice more quickly when I need to hear Him in a significant way in the larger moments. That doesn't mean the tiny moments aren't important (I'm actually kinda partial to them). It just means I'm learning, ever so slowly, how to let times of waiting change me. I am learning to willingly slow and listen for what He wants to say in the ordinary moments in the inevitable anticipation of the times when I know waiting will come.
Waiting can be hard. It can test our patience and feel like a personal assault on our agenda. But, if everything in our life is there for a reason and ultimately can purposefully draw us closer to Jesus, we're left with a decision. How do we face these waiting moments and see them not as obstacles but opportunities? How will I allow this waiting to do its work in me?
Today, be encouraged that there has never been one waiting moment, large or small, whether at the grocery store or carpool line, career change or doctor's office, personal trial, airport, or just a seemingly insignificant moment in your kitchen that the Lord hasn't been.right.there.with.you.in.it.
So this week, be watching for him. He loves for us to discover him in the moments we least expect to see him. He's in the waiting. He's with us while we wait.
-TB
But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. - Micah 7:7