Have ever been scrolling on Facebook or Instagram, and you come across those videos where in the description, it just says, “wait for it”. I can admit that every single time I see one of those videos, I stop, wait, and watch it. And I think I watch it because I wouldn’t say I like waiting because I would ordinarily scroll past them. But it just takes those three simple words for me not to care. And no matter how long the video is, I’m going to wait in anticipation to see whatever hilarious or significant moment that they’ve now baited me into watching.
For me, 2020 and the events surrounding the global pandemic have felt like an intense period of waiting. And I know it has felt that way for many others. You know, for some of us, all of our plans have been completely disrupted and unraveled. For some of us (depending on what part of the world we’re in), life is restricted.
These restrictions have been hard becuase when I make a decision, I am someone who goes after it as quickly as possible. So I found myself asking a lot of questions that I can’t even really answer. When will I be able to? Or why can I? Will this still be going on when, and so on. And even though I’ve experienced and learned much through wading through long periods of waiting, I can admit that I’m still not that great at it.
We must trust God, even when His answer is ‘wait’ .
Unkown
So as I’ve been thinking about this, I was challenged by asking myself a different what-if question. What if, instead of waiting for the time to pass, I can leverage this time to cultivate something new, deepen something, or learn something new. What if it was a time of purpose? I had to ask myself––am I waiting with purpose, or am I just doing things to pass the time?
So I believe that this could be our moment to wait with purpose. In seasons of waiting like this, God has spoken to me, he’s cultivated joy, and have grown me in ways that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise been open to or even recognized. So I might offer you the same question. How can you wait with purpose? Maybe there are new habits that you want to develop. Perhaps you recognize things in yourself; maybe there are things where you felt like you had control, and now all of a sudden is very out of control. We can lean into what it looks like to develop new habits and trust in the fact that God is using this time to establish something even more significant than you could have ever imagined. You know, maybe he’s igniting dreams or reigniting dreams that you forgot about, and now you have time to stop and put thought towards it.
It’s interesting, when you look at some of the most significant figures in the Bible-Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and David-had to wait many years for God’s promises. Everything that happened in the meantime, was used to prepare them, inside and outside. When they fulfilled their promise, it was an excellent reward for them.
Whatever it is, I would caution you to stop, take some time to reflect, and think about what times of waiting can mean for you. Even though there are a lot of unknowns and a lot of uncertainty, what I do know is that you are loved that you are seen you are an overcomer. And if you’re open to listening, I believe that God wants to speak to you, do wonderful things, and cultivate wonderful things in you during this season as you wait with purpose.
