Walking with God: He’s Always in the Waiting

This song, “Take Courage” with Kristene Di Marco has a beautiful chorus, “Take courage my heart. Stay steadfast my soul. He’s in the waiting. He’s in the waiting.”

Author Henri Nouwen said these two things about waiting,

“Waiting is a period of learning. The longer we wait, the more we hear about him for whom we are waiting.”

“Waiting time is not wasted time. Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.”

We’ve all been in seasons of waiting. No matter how short or long they are, we’re waiting for God to work, wondering when something will be over or something will begin. Those are the spaces and places, God is nearest to us.

Think about those seasons of waiting you’ve been in or are in right now. What have been your toughest ones? The one that comes to mind for me is our season with infertility. It was deeply painful and raw; a grieving process I never thought could be as intense as losing a parent.

I was grappling with trusting God; learning to be okay with the fact that we may not have a kid of our own and that we just might! There were a lot of unknowns but it was in that space where I truly learned to accept that God was the one who knew what was best for me.

When you are waiting for something to happen or waiting for something to change, it seems like you are stuck in that “in-between” space. But God’s there.

Where are you right now? What are you waiting on? I know for us right now we are waiting on when my mother-in-laws last chemo treatment will be, and then the results. We’re wondering what’s going to happen. But we’re also trying to trust. Because Mike and I have trusted God’s plan in the past, and He’s proven to be faithful over and over again, we trust Him with this. We remember – He knows what He’s doing.

But it still feels weird, right? The in-between space can be not so fun. Yet, it’s in those waiting rooms where He speaks. It’s in those waiting rooms where we hear that still small voice like the Bible speaks about in 1 Kings 19. It’s in those waiting rooms where we learn to be still and know that He is God, like it speaks about in Psalm 46:10.

It’s amazing how we think we can move along faster these seasons of waiting. Recovery from addiction. Recovery from major surgery. Therapy. We want to be healed on our time.

Yet – that’s not how any of it works and it’s definitely not how God works.

So we have to be okay with things being undone in these seasons. As a friend says to me, “Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

In our house, we are trying to finish our basement that we never got to because we moved right before I got pregnant and then I got sick and then we obviously had a baby, so no time to do that! But we got shelving and things to start organizing down there. Yet at this moment, there is still a box not open yet with one set of shelving. There’s another box opened with pieces all over the place. There is nothing “put together” about it. It’s pretty representative of where we’re at right now with Harriet. We don’t have answers yet so things are just undone. God’s time – not ours.

So what do we do in the meantime? We do what we can, when we can. We keep our expectations reasonable and we remind ourselves of where we’re at; and what this season is about.

It’s great to be able to get some of it done and it’s a good distraction from what’s going on with Harriet. But we still have to be present to the emotions of it. We have to be present to her and we’re grateful we can be.

Isaiah 41:10 tells us,

“So do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

If we remember this, we can know – we don’t have to fear when we’ll get through this season. We can trust that he will strengthen us as we go through it, and hold our hand.

It’s in these seasons that our faith is tested. We realize how much we do trust the Lord, or how much we don’t.

Last week Mike was at the lake with his Mom and I was home with Ellie. It was a hard week because she had a few things going on so never got good naps or anything. I was exhausted. I thought I’d feel better by the end of the weekend and here it is Monday, I’m still there. Well, I’m a mom so that tired feeling is pretty constant. But right now I know it’s heavier, because I can hear that whisper, “Be still Meredith.” “Rest, Meredith.” “It’s okay to rest.” “It’s okay to not get everything done.”

And even in the midst of that crazy week, I was inspired to do something really cool that I know wouldn’t have been noticed if I was rushing. Ellie and I were watching Zootopia, and you know how those kids movies always have teachable lessons. But the kids don’t really know what they mean since they are just starting life. Well, I thought, “Wow, I can use the wisdom I’ve learned on this broken road to Jesus to help her see these lessons as she gets older!” So look soon for a post called, “The Birth of ‘Life Lessons for my Daughter’.”

So, as much as it stinks sometimes to wait, embrace your season of waiting. Let God do His best work by letting you rest in Him in your weakness so He can reveal Himself to you more deeply. He’s not going anywhere and He already knows the beginnings and ends of your seasons. Trust Him. He’s always in the waiting.