While I am Waiting......

You know that word? That word that comes up so many times. That word that people like to bring up whenever you start to complain about the long line you need to wait in or the week of work you have ahead of you before you get to enjoy a weekend or the red light you have to sit at when you are late for your hockey game? That horrible p word....Ya, you know what I am talking about. The word, patience.

You know there are people who are just really patient people. They don't ever complain about waiting. They don't get frustrated easily when things are going right for them or someone does them wrong. When I look at people like that I am jealous of their gift to be patient. Recently I did a trip to Florida. Both on the way there and on the way home I had a delay in my flights. It didnt actually affect the time I landed in Florida or the time I landed in TO but boy did I start to get impatient when I didnt get to leave at the time I had been hoping. I envy the people who take a situation like this and make the best out of it. Knit a scarf for a loved one or something. Do something productable instead of sitting around waiting impatiently.

This brings me to real reason this is on my mind right now. The whole idea of waiting on the Lord and figuring out exactly how to spend the time that you are not sure what you are supposed to be doing. How to make every time period in your life productable even when you are in that waiting process.

You know those people who in grade three were already talking about what they wanted to be when they grew up and it never changed the whole way through elementry school or high school.

"I am gonna be a doctor when I grow up."

20 years later he is a doctor.

Then there is trish.
Grade 4, " I want to be a teacher when I grow up."
Grade 8, "I want to landscape when I grow up."
Grade 10, "Something with technolgy maybe....."
Grade 12, "I have no idea...."

I was always envious of those people.

So what about that waiting period. That period where we are not sure exactly where God is leading us or what he has in store for us. He has placed us in every situation for a reason. There is a reason He has put us in that waiting period right then. If for no other reason to teach us patience. But oh it is hard to wait and not try to take it in our own hands. But trust me! That doesn't work either.

I have specifically mentioned career as something you seek God's guidance on cause it is one of the I have dealt with while waiting on the Lord. However, there are other things that you might have or will face such as relationships, sickness or death etc.  This isnt usually  a one time occasion in our lives. This is something we will face again and again. Each age in life has its different challenges.

What I think is important is what we do in these waiting times. Remember that time when you were a kid and you were waiting to go to your friends house and the hours were just going by so slowly and your mom finally made you clean your room. You complained but in the end you realised that it was time to go now and that it had actually gone by quite fast. I think waiting on the Lord kind of works like this. If we sit around just waiting to see what God will drop in our paths we end up wasting a lot of precious time that we are supposed to be using.

Its like the song by John Waller, While I'm Waiting. In this song he says he will continue to move ahead and obey God. He will continue to serve the Lord. He will continue to worship. He will not faint and will continue to run the race of life even while he waits.

By remembering to spend our time the best way we know how we will speed up the time and help with the whole p word.

I pray that I would be able to focus on what God is trying to teach me and be able to use my time praising and serving Him even when He is silent.