Using the Waiting Room of Life

From Shannon: This article hit me right where I am these days. Exploring. Waiting. Feeling like I’m pursuing the direction I’m supposed to be going, but impatient with the process and the challenges in this season of life. Thought I’d share it with you. (Click here to see the original post.)

If there is one thing people in our generation hate to do, it is to wait. And why should we? We are an impatient generation that can Google questions rather than work for an answer. We can order shoes online rather than suffering the long weekend lines at the retail store. We can even book reservations ahead of time rather than wait for a table at our favorite establishment.

But God doesn’t operate any faster in the 21st century than He did in the first. And so while we rush ourselves and everything else in our lives, we can’t rush God. In fact, much of life is spent waiting.

• Waiting for a response to a book proposal.
• Waiting to hear from a potential employer.
• Waiting for a medical diagnosis.
• Waiting to meet your spouse.
• Waiting for a letter from your top choice for college.

While our natural inclination is to hate waiting, this period of uncertainty can actually be a time of great personal growth. Here are three lessons I learned while in the “waiting room” of life:

Recognize that God is in control—even when it seems He has forgotten you.

I love the words to the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk: "Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it” (Habakkuk 1:5, NLT). Often when it seems nothing is happening, everything is happening behind the scenes. You just can’t see it.

For a few years, I felt God calling my wife and me to another ministry, but it seemed every door was closed. At times I grew restless and wondered if I had fallen into some kind of godless abyss. What I didn’t see was the circumstances God had to work out in order to put me where I am today, as a senior pastor of a growing church. The machinery of God’s sovereignty was at work all along, and I just didn’t know it.

Renew your faith in God’s quiet, steady providence.

A few years ago, my wife and I were waiting on several important family and career developments. To quell my anxiety, I did a study on waiting in the Scriptures. I was amazed to find that every major figure in the Bible was forced to wait long periods of time before God brought them to a place of success.

• Abraham waited 25 years before his wife Sarah gave birth to their first child.
• Joseph slogged through 13 years of betrayal, false imprisonment and abandonment before assuming the leadership of Egypt.
• Moses spent 40 years tending sheep before God called him as a deliverer of His people.
• David spent 14 years before he took the throne of Israel that had been promised to him.
• And in Jesus’ own ministry, He often told His disciples, “My hour has not yet come.”

Waiting is not incidental to faith. Waiting is the DNA of faith.

Redeem your time in the waiting room of life.

A few years ago, my wife endured some terrible health challenges. I literally spent hours in waiting rooms all over the Chicago area. This was before the age of iPhones, so I was forced to sit there, twiddling my thumbs or reading three-year-old magazines with outdated information. I hated every second of it.

We often do the same during our own waiting periods. So anxious are we for that “next step,” we languish in despair. But James 1:4 reminds us to “let patience have her perfect work.”

Just because you are technically waiting doesn’t mean you can’t be accomplishing something. Times of uncertainty and doubt are useful periods in which we can draw into God, hone our skills and prepare for the time when that big promotion comes.

• A single man or woman should ready him or herself for marriage while still single by reading books about relationships, developing themselves personally and praying for their future spouse.
• A future employee can get a leg-up on the position he covets by taking a few extra college classes or diving into books and podcasts by leaders they respect.
• A writer should continue to cultivate his craft, reading and filling blank pages while he’s waiting for the big contract.

View your time in “the waiting room” as a season of growth and development and you’ll find you’ll be that much more ready when “the moment” finally arrives. Waiting for answers can be one of the most grueling seasons of life, but with the proper perspective, you may look back on these periods as some of the most formative and meaningful times of life. So make the most of it. What are you waiting for?

Daniel Darling is the pastor of Gages Lake Bible Church in Chicago. He is the author of iFaith: Connecting with God in the 21st Century and blogs regularly here.

There is a face that we hide till the nighttime appears, And what's hiding inside, behind all of our fears, Is our true self locked inside the facade.

 - from Jekyll & Hyde

 We all wear masks. That's not the issue. The point is that most of us have no idea how to take them off. Masking is a big problem, because continual masking results in serious relational breakdowns.

Ask yourself this question, "Do some of these relational breakdowns below remind me of myself?"

• I lose my objectivity in a crisis and I become the issue.
• I am highly susceptible to wrong life choices.
• I am unable to be loved or to love.
• I am highly sensitized to my sin and I judge the sin of others.
• I hide my sin and become vulnerable to even more sin.
• I attempt to control others.

If you found yourself in any of these, we can encourage you. First, God's grace specializes in imperfection. Relax. Second, the Father's love, expressed through others, is designed to melt your masks. Third, "trusting others with you" is essential for your masks to begin melting. (Many of our free vlogs, blogs, and podcasts will show you how to test the waters of this authentic life.) Finally, the little booklet Behind the Mask (available from www.truefaced.com) has helped thousands experience the biblical truths of grace that melt masks, and it might help you too.

Living an authentic life full of joy, where our life issues are being resolved, is not a minor issue with God. It's the gold standard of life in Jesus. And we want you to experience the "gold."

 

Written by Bruce, Bill & John - for the Truefaced community, www.truefaced.com

Are we really ready to change and grow?

I just read an introspective article by Dr. Alex Pattakos, author of the book “Prisoners of Our Thoughts” (www.prisonersofourthoughts.com). The article focuses on correspondence he had with actual prisoners, people locked away for years – or even life – in actual prisons.

”What is common and revealing in these quotations is that, even though they are facing a formidable challenge in life that none of us would ever like to endure, both inmates are able and willing to explore the meaning of their respective lives' moments, including those "moments" that are not so pleasant and may actually be extremely painful for them. Moreover, the inmates are demonstrating their willingness to own up to their own lives by discovering the meaning of any given moment, including those that came during their imprisonment. They are assuming responsibility for weaving their unique tapestry of existence, that is, what is their own life.

“Now let me ask you: if inmates in a real prison are able and willing to search for meaning in their lives, as well as exploring ways to change and grow, are you? Remember, we don't really create meaning; we find it. And we can't find it unless we look for it. Although we are not always aware of it, meaning is present in every moment, even in what may be viewed as the darkest hours of our lives.”

Here is a great post from life and business coach Molly Gordon on acceptance.

Acceptance is the foundation for all creative action. Acceptance is finding the “you are here” place on the map, the place you can take a confident stand and then move toward your goal. There’s simply no way to move forward if you don’t start from where you are.

The first pillar of acceptance is humility. Humility and its close relative humor exert a homeopathic influence: a small dose of humility and humor averts humiliation. It’s a whole lot easier to accept where you are with this pillar in place.

The second pillar of acceptance is wonder. Wonder enlarges our capacity to receive support from unexpected sources. When you accept what is with a sense of wonder, it is much easier to surrender control – which you don’t have anyway – and open to synchronicity, serendipity, and happy accident.

The third pillar of acceptance is willingness. Each time you set aside your own script in favor of reality and summon the willingness to cooperate with what is, rather than fight it, you are storing up energy, building momentum. With the pillar of willingness in place, acceptance shifts your orientation from resignation and resentment to healthy peace and ambition.

The fourth pillar of acceptance is desire. Ah, desire! When you tune into your deepest and truest desires and allow yourself to experience your longing while accepting current reality, you complete a circuit. Your acceptance is now the firm foundation from which you can move forward.