Waiting

I'm happy to say I seem to be doing well on the new medication- no real noticeable side effects yet... A bit of nausea, but that was expected. Keep praying this provides ultimate relief!


I'm currently also considering whether or not to continue therapy through the summer, or to take a break and resume in the fall. If I continued, I would need to switch to a local counselor, re-explain my entire story and diagnoses, and then begin under his or her methods of psychotherapy. I'm still thinking what would be best/easiest...


I came across this quote yesterday. In light of what I talked about the last two days, I wanted to share it: Should you find yourself the victim of other people's bitterness, anger, ignorance, smallness, pettiness, insecurities, persecution, cruelty, remember, things could be worse. You could be one of them!


Blogger wasn't working yesterday, hence my post absence. 


I don't really have any story to share today. I opened up another letter to myself, (which was to be opened at the end of the semester). I will type it for a later post. 


Instead, today I am going to share a message I shared in November. I was the speaker to give the message at a campus praise service. Keep in mind I wrote this in the midst of my worst trials and anguish, and then managed to deliver it to a large group of students.

Message Text: Psalm 130:5-6: I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.

Waiting. Think about how much waiting you do in an average day. You wait for class to start,  you wait until you can eat lunch, you wait for class again, you wait until you take a nap, you wait to go to a rehearsal, you wait again to eat dinner, you wait for your friend to call you to come hang out, you wait . And then you wait to fall asleep at night. And then there are the other things we’re waiting for in the distant future- on Monday everyone is waiting for the weekend, we’re waiting to leave for Thanksgiving, waiting for Christmas, waiting to graduate, waiting to celebrate our next birthday. Waiting to find a spouse, waiting to get our own house and raise your own family, - Speaking frankly, most of the time, we are waiting for the next thing to come. It seems like often when the thing we’re waiting for comes, we wait again for whatever comes next.

Waiting can be hard, I know, and we've turned into a culture of self-gratification. When we have to wait, many of us have the attitude of "I want it now or I'm going to pout!"

But as Christians, we have waiting to face in our lives.  Challenges, hardships, and other things we encounter show up. Sin and Satan make pain, suffering, and hardships inevitable and unavoidable.

I want to tell you a story about a mother and a daughter who went shopping in a large super store. While they were in the store the sky grew dark, lightning began to hit the ground, and thunder had boomed. The heavens opened up in a downpour and by the time they made their exit, there was a crowd of people waiting for the rain to let up so they could get to their cars. After a few minutes, the little girl volunteered, "Mom, let's run through the rain!" Mother replied, "I think we'd better wait for things to slow down. I don't want to get soaked." The little girl said, "We won't get soaked. You said so." The mother was a bit surprised. She thought back on the day's conversations to see if she had, anywhere along the way, talked about rain and getting wet. She hadn't. Finally she asked, "Honey, when did I say we wouldn't get wet in a rainstorm?"

The little girl quickly answered, "You remember - this morning - when you were talking to Daddy about his cancer. You said, 'If we can get through this, we can get through anything.'" By this time, the conversation between mother and daughter had the interest of the crowd that was waiting for the storm to let up. They listened intently to what the mother’s response would be. They, along with the little girl, waited to see if the mother's heart would be practical or if the two would run through the rain. The mother, having thought for a split second about whether she would be practical or not, said this, "Honey, you are absolutely right. Let's run through the rain. If we get wet, maybe that's the Lord's way of telling us that we just might need a little cleaning." Hand-in-hand they ran. With plastic bags over their heads they ran through the rain, they jumped over the puddles and once or twice a foot landed right in a puddle. They got wet, but they didn't drown. Many of the crowd which had been listening to the conversation between mother and daughter also started running through the rain. The ones who didn't, smiled, and the ones who did, laughed. And they got wet, but, they didn't drown.

The Psalm we heard earlier- Psalm 130- is a song of ascent. The people sang it as they rose from the depths and began their journey from nothingness and sinfulness into holiness- they sang it as they went up into Jerusalem. A time when they were in the depths. And if you remember the words of the Psalm, they turned their waiting into praising- and as they waited in the depths, they got wet, but they didn't drown.

So I ask you, what depths are you crying from? What depths are you waiting to get out of? The depths we face are physical, they're things we're experiencing- and other times our feelings bother us so much that they bring us into the depths.

When you’re down in the depths, God wants you to call to Him. He has promised He will answer all prayers, as we hear in Job 14 “You will call and I will answer you.”- Granted, God doesn’t always answer the way we may want Him to or think best, but, He will not forget us. And when His answer isn’t what we want, or it seems like we have to wait even longer, we need to remember that God answers in His time and in our best interest.  He reminds us in Isaiah 55:9, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

And there is so much that can be learned from waiting! That's why God puts waiting in our lives- to use it as a time of preparation and to give us Patience. God brings us His word, and down in the depths, God comforts us through His Word. so we can comfort others in their troubles. God also uses it as an opportunity for us to build up our relationship with Him- He wants us to rely on Him rather than relying on ourselves.  Only He can bring the peace we need. Don't feel hopeless in the depths- as the Psalm says, "I have found hope in your Word"

Don't forget that during those times, God is right there. We hear his promise in Hebrews 13:5,  “God has promised, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.” – And before Jesus went up into heaven, he promised, “Surely I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.”  Although you may feel alone in the depths, remember, God is still with you, and He's not going anywhere.

If sin is what is bringing you down in the depths, causing you misery and despair, hear the promises God has to offer you. be comforted, for you don’t have to wait any longer- As we heard in our Psalm Passage, verses 3-4 “But with you there is forgiveness…” We know that Christ was born, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and rose again! God did the great thing when He sent His Son to died on the cross- and because He died and smashed death, we don’t have to wait for forgiveness! When we ask, we receive!!  Sin may make us feel wet in the rainstorm, but because of Jesus' death on the cross, we're not going to drown in it.

If you have a troubled heart, listen to the words of the Christmas angel. He said, "In Jesus I bring you good tidings of great joy!" A tiny baby was born for you- for the whole world. The wait is over, the Savior has come. Listen to the book of Colossians. There it says this: "May you be strengthened with Divine power in harmony with God's glorious might. May you have endurance and patience and joy. May you give thanks for He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. In the crucified and risen Christ we have redemption; we have the forgiveness of sins"

Although we're forgiven, our whole lives are still spent in waiting- to get to the place where God created us to ultimately bring us. We hear about our eternal home and find hope in the Scriptures. We may have to wait a while before we get to join God in heaven- But take heart, and rejoice in the grace that is given to you daily. Enjoy the life you have here on earth- and complete the work God designed for you to do.  Here on earth, we are in the company of saints- a glimpse of the glory yet to come some day in heaven. Jesus is coming back for those who are waiting for Him.

And in heaven, God’s full picture and master plan will be revealed, and we will understand everything, and know that God truly was working throughout our lives for our good and to fulfill His purpose. We will understand why sometimes we got wet in the rain, and we will realize that our waiting was never so bad we drowned.

The next time you're feeling hopeless and alone, and in the depths, turn your time of waiting into a time of praising and rejoicing-  and during those times of waiting,  you may get a little wet, but you're not going to drown.

You know, our heavenly Father knows what waiting is like, too. If you think waiting is hard, imagine how God must feel. All of his most treasured possessions, us, his children, are here on earth. Yes, He could take us any moment- but we were created with a purpose, and He leaves us here to do His work. One day when your earthly race has been run, and He can't wait any more, He’ll call your name and take you into His arms you’ll hear Him say, “I’ve been waiting for you. Welcome home.”