I mentioned the other day, a word I don't particularly care for. W-a-i-t. I do not enjoy waiting...it's probably the reason why God places me in the check-out with the absolute slowest cashier imaginable. Every. Single. Time. I'm there in line thinking to myself,
"Where do they find these people? Can't they see/hear my wild children who have passed the breaking point?!? COME ON!" Yeah, I know...not pretty. But true.
There is hope for me though :) This is what I'm learning. I'm not a Theologian, but Biblically, I'm pretty sure that waiting and eagerly anticipating go hand in hand. In my head though...whole other story! In my head I associate "waiting" as a passive word. For years I have said things like, "I'm praying about such and such, and just waiting on the Lord's direction." Sounds fine, right? What I meant when I said that was not fine at all. What I meant was...I've done what I need to do, I'm just waiting for the Lord to catch up. *UGH* (I want to clarify that not everyone who says that phrase means it like that, but I did) Unimaginable that I would say that to God...up until recently I wouldn't have even realized that's what I was meaning...but through this process of personal revival, God is revealing to me ALL KINDS of things that are hard...and not pretty, but WOW! The freedom that comes from actually becoming aware of that sin, and dealing with it is...incredible.
I am now in the process of eagerly anticipating instead of waiting. What God is showing me, is that He views waiting differently than I do. God is never playing "catch-up" to me...He leads. And the waiting, that seemed so desperately boring, is the very thing that's the most important. I always viewed the end result, whatever I anticipated it to be, as the Big Deal...but the Big deal is actually all the steps of growing and maturing along the way... the waiting :)
I am not eloquent enough to think of words to describe how thankful I am for a Savior who never gives up on me, or tires of me, or loses patience with me. Where would I be without Him?!?
- Sarah@Life in the Parsonage
- Wife to Ben, who also happens to be the Pastor of a sweet little church in a tiny little town. Mama to three boys and little Lucy. We live in the parsonage, 27 steps from said little church. This is the journey...it involves lots of run-on sentences.
<center><a href="http://www.lifeintheparsonage.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt94/memoriesbydesign/Life%20in%20the%20Parsonage/BlogButton.png"/></a></center></td>
Us
Subscribe Now: Feed Icon
Subscribe To
Posts
Comments
The Fringe Hours
It's so nice to know that all the mistakes I make in life, God never gives up on me. Thank you for your humble post.
ReplyDelete"The freedom that comes from actually becoming aware of that sin, and dealing with it is...incredible. "
ReplyDeleteAMEN!
Isn't God good?! Even when we don't have it all figured out... we're not meant to... HE KNOWS BEST!!
ReplyDeleteWaiting & eagerly anticipating His best right along with you!!
Woohoo! Well put, Sarah! And you know what? Since that first post you made about waiting? I've been working at it! Especially the whole, "Go to the Throne before you go to the phone!" concept (praying, asking God for help instead of trying to take care of things my own way).
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to keep from trying to solve issues my own way. And I couldn't agree with you more, I'm so thankful that God doesn't give up on me or lose patience with me!
I am SO glad you are sharing this process. It is a beautiful, encouraging...and convicting(!)thing. :-}
ReplyDeleteI spent some time pondering similar ideas, from a slightly different vantage point, last year, and I came to a very similar conclusion: It's all about the process. If it is of any interest (and it REALLY is okay if it's not!), my thoughts can be found here:
http://shalomseekerblogs.blogspot.com/2008/02/imported-post-from-previous-blog-on.html
Keep sharing! I need to keep revisiting this. And from what you said about your Sunday, I think I have your pastor-husband to thank for dropping phrase 'eagerly anticipating' into your lingo this week. And I LOVE it.
Looking *forward* to seeing Him at work,
-J