Waiting Place
We often find ourselves in the waiting place. Waiting for a new job, a mending of a relationship, waiting for a diagnosis, a cure, a break from the hard stuff, relief in pain. Have you ever heard of Abide Meditations? Scripture-filled short and long meditations for daytime and night. Today, there was three-minute message focused on: But you, beloved, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God as you await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you etenral life. (Jude 1:20-21 BSB emphasis mine)
Some part of us knows that what we’re waiting for may never occur. Another, deeper part, hopes it will. And the part in us where the Holy Spirit resides, our hearts and very being, says: just rest, seek, trust.
This isn’t natural for us. Some of us are doers. Some of us have not encountered this waiting thing before. And all of us just want to move on. To be anywhere but this place.
One thing about eternity that brings much comfort for us ‘waiters’ is that time itself will no longer be our focus. Forever is a long time and we don’t have to count the hours or years let alone the eons ahead. This is freeing, this is hope, this is promise.
Personally, over the last eight months of waiting through pain, what Paul David Tripp calls ‘suffering’, I have cried out ‘How long Lord?’ I’ve begged for an end – a Job finale. Everything restored as it was. Days have blurred one into another and still I ask every day for the miracle. Because… I can, you can. We are His children and we can ask. He does answer – just not always the way we think He should, or when we think He should.
So, today if you are a ‘waiter’ remember He is waiting with you. As the Abide message said today: ever wait in line for something and then a friend comes along and you start chatting? The time flies by. It’s the same for us in our wait now. Right here in line with us is Jesus, our friend and Savior. We need to chat with Him – because in doing this we will stop counting how long and focus on what’s truly important: His presence.
parisrenae 
I continue to keep you in my thoughts and prayers. I cannot take credit for this, but I thought perhaps something else to reflect on:
God uses the time of waiting to stretch our faith in him. We develop patience, a fruit of the Holy Spirit, through practice and under trial (CCC 1832). We can begin to feel satisfied as we practice this virtue. If God followed our timing, we wouldn’t grow and develop in our relationship with God or with others.
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