I looked up “wait” in the dictionary today. The definitions are as follows:
to remain inactive in readiness or expectation;postpone;delay;to be ready.
Our family is in a season of waiting and preparation. For about two months now we have been working on paperwork to apply for our residence visa to live in Spain and attend G42 Leadership Academy. Last week, we received the final piece of paperwork we thought we needed to take a trip to Chicago to our nearest Spanish consulate and submit the application and the pile of certified,authenticated,sealed, signed and translated documents they require! While going over the checklist on the Spanish consulate’s website one last time, I discovered that a change had been made to their requirements and now one of the documents we have in hand is basically useless. The newly required document will take approximately 12 weeks to acquire. Taking into consideration that the Spanish government says to allow “an indeterminate amount of time” for a decision on our visa application; we are going to run out of time before our originally planned departure date. We are realizing that our timing and the Lord’s timing differ here. This is challenging to swallow! Everything we have been working toward for the past several months has revolved around a mid-September departure to Spain. Now we face the very real possibility that we won’t be leaving until mid-December.
In the grand scheme of things, a 3 month delay is not huge. We are very thankful that the training academy we are going to attend has open enrollment more than once a year. We trust that God sees the big picture and if He sees fit for us to wait, then we will obey. Waiting is not a foreign concept in the scope of history; particularly our spiritual history!
*Abraham was 100 years old before the promise of his son came to pass in the birth of Isaac.
*Moses and the Israelites wandered 40 years in the wilderness before getting to the Promised Land.
*Hannah prayed and longed for a child through years of infertility before the Lord gave her Samuel.
*The promise of a Messiah was prophesied centuries before Jesus Christ was born.
*We continue to wait…for His triumphant return.
There is part of Webster’s definition that I have a problem with. The “remaining inactive” portion really has no place in the life of a true follower of Christ. When we are called on to wait, we must diligently pursue God’s purpose and reason for the waiting. Perhaps it is a time to grow something within us. Often, it is to allow for time to grow something OUT of us; some sin or defect of character. The more I grow in my understanding of the omnipotent and sovereign power of God, I also believe there are reasons and causes in waiting that I will never fully understand or know simply because God is God and I am not!
This is not my human, default, “go to” stance or attitude when I am asked to put my plans on hold and wait upon the Lord. In our culture of instant gratification, drive thru, while-you-wait service; patience is not a virture I have much call to develop. This does not mean ,however, that God won’t still require an attitude of patience in me. It is up to each one of us how we accept or reject these lessons in waiting. Will it become an opportunity for growth and blessing; or an area we close off from His touch and allow callous bitterness to dwell?
So, I choose to focus on the last part of Webster’s definition: to be ready.
Leaving in September for Spain was our plan. We will do what we can do to be ready to leave in September. If that is not the Lord’s plan, then we will wait. In the waiting we will be ready to see what else He is wanting to accomplish in us and through us yet here in Michigan. We will ask Him to illuminate the parts of our characters that He desires to refine and prepare for His service. We will continue to shed and discard that which is not beneficial to a life lived for Jesus Christ. We will open our lives and our home to others we encounter who are also waiting on the Lord. Perhaps, together, the waiting will be sweeter.
“May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us – yes, establish the work of our hands.” Psalm 90:17
