The Waiting Place

"As we pursue our dreams, we live in the middle of the waiting place, a space filled with what-ifs: What if I'm just wasting my time? What if I never get a chance? What if I'm not good enough?" - The Waiting Place, Eileen Button

The Waiting Place. It's the place and the times in our lives that can be the hardest and have the most challenging moments. But how do you wait? I spent the last couple weeks reading a book by Eileen Button called The Waiting Place. It's 22 chapters of short essays about her times in the waiting place. While reading this book I was thinking about all the times I wait. I wait at the grocery store, wait in traffic, wait at work, and the big one...waiting for my breakthrough and for God to answer my prayers.

How do you wait? I'm impatient while I wait...usually in traffic...but impatient. I've never looked at these times as moments to reflect in what I was supposed to be learning, doing, helping, or just being still and in the present. When reading this book it gave me a bit of relief to know that someone else had been waiting for some of the exact same things as me.

Each waiting place that I've been in has helped me become a stronger woman in faith and in life. When I think of my waiting places they were the hardest tests of my faith that I've encountered and still encounter to this day.

There were the waiting times of grief as I watched a couple of grandparents take their last breaths, and others family members passing too early in their lives. This waiting place was trying to come to grips with the loss and deal with my grief and anger...especially towards God.

There were times waiting for a new career opportunity. Trying to push through the rejection of opportunities missed or not given, and allowing the right job to show up at the right time.

There were times waiting for family and friends to become well again after long illnesses. Working through comforting them and trusting that healing will come and they will become themselves again.

All this while trying to wait on God to move in my life and the lives of those around me.

And the big one (for me anyway) the times waiting for a relationship. This has always been the one waiting place that I cannot seem to escape. Now when I say escape, I mean allowing God to be #1 in my life and being satisfied with who I am in Him. I make the mistake of understanding that God loves me more than any other will, however I still search for a person to fulfill me when I have already been fulfilled by the One who loved me first.

"People of faith always say they want God to work in their lives in powerful ways. They want him to move mountains. Call them to great things. Challenge them to a miraculous stroll on top of water and reach out to catch them when they start to sink. Week after week the faithful stand in churches and sing songs about sacrifice. They pour their hearts out to God and ask him to mold them like clay. They say they want to give it all for Jesus. But let me tell you, when he actually asks you to give up something, and when you have absolutely no doubt that the voice in your head is God himself, it can really freak you out." - The Waiting Place, Eileen Button

Are you guilty of the above? I know I am. We want the miracles and for Him to make the changes we want. We want all our hearts desire without the trials, temptations and hurt. We want the easy road, bypassing the waiting place, but unfortunately we will always have a waiting place.

We will always have the brick walls stopping, or even just blocking our path to our progress. A quote by Randy Pausch I love talks about the brick walls; "The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something."

The waiting place makes us who we are. The brick walls don't keep us out, they make us work harder. They make us braver, stronger, faithful and determined to work through the wait. To live is to wait. It's how we wait that makes all the difference.

I encourage you to wait. Wait with patience. Wait and work on yourself. Wait to allow God to show you your direction. If you can, I recommend you grab a copy of the book The Waiting Place that I've been quoting in this post.

This book has been a life changer for me and has made me look at the times I wait and how I can handle it more effectively while still trusting that God will work through my waiting place.