Waiting (Friendly Fire)

God Gold of the day

A special God Gold from a very special friend, Leeann McCathern!! Prepare yourselves….you are about to be seriously BLESSED!!!!!

 

“It feels so surreal to be writing that title! I’ve been in awe of the God Gold ever since Jordan texted me my first one. The God Gold is one of the greatest corners of the internet – so full of truth and genuine love for the Lord. If you know Jordan, then you know he’s as authentic + full of the Lord’s wisdom as someone can get. He’s obedient, faithful, and constantly inspires me to be better. Thanks for the honor of having a small spot on your GG, Jo Dean!”

I wanted to write my guest post on something overwhelmingly close to my heart recently – waiting. How are we supposed to deal with a season of waiting that seems like it will never end? How do we muster up the confidence in the Lord’s plans, day after day, when it seems like nothing around us is changing? How do we stay hopeful when the plans we’ve been chasing seem impossible?

Honestly, I still don’t really know the answers to any of these questions. Probably not the best way to kick off a blog post, but that’s the truth and I’m just trying to keep it real. What I do know is this: What the Lord has for us, won’t miss us. (Psalm 84:11 tells us this! No good thing will He withhold…) 

I repeat this to myself often, because it’s so easy for me to feel like the Lord’s forgotten me. It’s easy for me to feel like my time waiting is just being wasted. 

I moved to Japan four months ago. Four months since I had to give up the things I held closest: my family, my friends, my job, my church – the list could go on and on. And ever since I’ve gotten to Japan, I’ve been waiting. Waiting to find community, waiting for paperwork to clear so that I could drive, then waiting for jobs to open, then waiting to hear back from job applications…. this list could go on and on too. This season of my life has been all of the waiting with the least amount of clarity. And for the first two months, I was angry. I was stuck at home, having gone from a bustling life and a job to… nothing. I wasn’t used to staying home all day or not being able to go anywhere because I couldn’t drive. I was sitting and I was waiting angrily, and because of this I was resisting anything God was trying to teach me. I was so bitter that my life looked nothing like I thought it would at this point, that I wasn’t letting in any of the good God was trying to give me. 

So here’s what I’ve really learned about seasons of waiting – you have two choices. You can either sit and drown in your sorrow, or you can sit and ask God to refine you. You can ask him to teach you, to mold you, to grow you in your waiting. The second I stopped letting my expectations be bigger than my faith – it changed everything.

I had to learn to be resilient, and had to really lean into what God had for me in order to get through the waiting.

I had to learn to take inventory of myself. I had to ask myself the hard questions, 

“What am I learning in this season of waiting?” 

“Am I waiting well? Am I allowing this season to be purposeful?”

“How can I be growing while I’m waiting?”

I had to ask myself – What is God trying to teach me in the waiting, that I’m missing because I’m desperately trying to get to the ‘next step?’ The truth is that we’re not ever just waiting – we’re being prepared. The Lord is working in the waiting – preparing us for whatever is coming next. 

It’s not what I thought life would look like at 25, and for that, I thank God. Because without this long stretch of waiting – I wouldn’t have a deep appreciation for the things that I do now. Driving, flexibility, freedom. Things that four months ago seemed hopelessly out of reach – but the Lord blessed me with right on time. 

Just because your life doesn’t look like you thought it would doesn’t mean it will stay that way. And it definitely doesn’t mean it’s time wasted. It’s a time of preparation. It’s a time you’re able to bless your future self – by letting yourself be prepared, and grown for all the good things God has coming your way.

And if you’re in a season of waiting like me, I’ll tell you this – it gets better. The Lord gives the right gifts, at the right time – and the holy things + plans He has could never, ever pass us by. 

I mean it – God’s plans will not miss you. So let go of that bitterness you’re harboring, and put that energy into something better. Something bigger. 

Let yourself be open to how God is working in your waiting season – because none of it could ever be wasted. Every bit of what the Lord has for us is good, and that’s the only way I know how to answer all those questions in the beginning of this post. 🙂 “

Isaiah 30:18/ “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.”