But...Wait!

Is he thinking or waiting? I think he's waiting.

But...Wait!
Wait a minute.
Hurry up and wait.
Waiting room. Waiting area. Waiting gate. Waiting in line. Waiting in traffic. The waiting game.

What a weird word 'wait' is. And it's a four-letter word, too...and cousin to my least favorite word, patience.

I believe that the moment God creates us, He uses only certain words, words that will be unique to us, that will describe and define who we are. For instance, God's recipe for my mom surely included 1 cup Caring, 2/3 cup Gentleness, 2 cup Intelligence, 3/4 Cup Wisdom, 3 cup Talent, and 4 cup Patience...any maybe a pinch of salt!

Too bad my recipe has 1 tsp. Patience.

I think God probably intended to include more patience in my recipe, but when He was making me, He must have ran out of His patience that day or accidentally gave more of it to some other person created right after me. (If your birthday is around November 5, 1963, I'd be curious to know if you never ran to see what was under the tree on Christmas morning.)

After learning about my sister's cancer, I remember listening to a song by Greg Long (a contemporary Christian artist) called, "In the Waiting." Greg wrote this touching song while his father was going through the agonizing time of waiting for (cancer) test results. I had heard the song before, but this time it took on an entirely different meaning. Rhonda was no longer waiting for her test results, but rather waiting to see how much longer she would survive. It was not a hurry-up, 'I can't wait for the end' kind-of wait, but rather, a slow-down, take-your-time wait. In other words, Rhonda was blessed to be in the waiting.

And that's the approach I need to take on today. I am blessed to be in this waiting.

I'm learning, again, the lesson of patience. I'm waiting, I've been waiting and it looks like I'll have to wait some more. Knowing that situations and other people aren't in my control, I've succumbed and I've surrendered. I'm relenting and I'm relinquishing...even renouncing.

I'm waiting patiently on the Lord.

But I'm not idly sitting by, merely being a spectator of my life--No! Some people misunderstand this concept of waiting. Waiting on the Lord means living your life with a fierce determination to focus your life on God--and accept His ways, His purpose, His plan...in His time.

Maybe God intended to be skimpy with patience in my recipe. Maybe God knew I would go to him when I'm in short supply. "Knock, knock...'God, I need a cup of patience! This situation I'm in needs more than I have on hand...Can I borrow some from you today?"