While I'm Waiting

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In the past three weeks at Buckhead Church, we have been going through a series on waiting entitled "The Waiting Room." I think everyone, including me, that is waiting on God can relate. One thing that was really humorous were the videos at the beginning of the talks each week were of this guy waiting in the doctors' office and getting frustrated. This is sometimes how it feels to be in a season of waiting...

I was reading this morning in Jeremiah 29, and in that chapter is a letter that Jeremiah wrote to another people stuck in a season of waiting. However, it's interesting to read about what God wanted His people to do when in the waiting season of exile in Babylon. He wanted them to build homes, he wanted them to marry and raise families, he wanted them to engage and be lights to the Babylonian culture. This wasn't a boring, dry, waiting room with stale newspapers that God was calling them to but a mysterious adventure outside of their comfort zones. Now, in the letter He let Judah know that it was temporary and that He had plans to prosper them and not to harm them - 29:11 - (aka - God has never forgotten about His people and He's not about to stop with you).

So, in reality the analogy of being stuck in the doctors' office, while correct with the way that we FEEL, isn't aligned with reality. I believe that waiting on God is like having a 12 hour layover in a European city. You can choose to sit in the terminal, sleep, play cards and complain that you have 9 MORE HOURS till the next flight boards, or you can explore the possibilities and blessings that God has called you to in that season of waiting that you may not have gotten to experience if you were not in this season of your life. I had a couple of these, one in London 4 years ago and one in Amsterdam 2 years ago... and in those experiences we took trains into the city and explored... saw Buckingham Palace, the original Hard Rock Cafe, the Anne Frank House, etc. We didn't put our lives on hold in the waiting room of the layover but instead sought out the opportunities and blessings of being in a cool place for an extended period of time. The same is true of life... the season of waiting brings as much opportunity to see God move, to experience things in life we may not have experienced if we got "that thing" sooner, and to trust God rather than in trust in His gifts.

I've heard a song on the Fish that's pretty good on waiting. I think it encapsulates this thought pretty well.



So what are you doing while you're waiting? Are you sitting still, or moving toward where God wants you in this season?

Comments

Alicia said…
yeah!!!
5:28 AM
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