Several years ago, we took a sabbatical from synagogue. During that time of intense personal study and digging deeper, we came to many realizations but most of all we prayed hard for direction in our life, most especially in our spiritual life. At the end of the time of sabbatical, we were stunned to be told that we needed to step back entirely and leave synagogue. It was not the answer we'd expected to hear.
What ensued after that time, we came to describe as 'The Waiting Room', a long period when we sought God alone, as husband and wife only and not as part of a formal congregation. It was not where we'd expected to be nor the season we'd anticipated when we'd prayed for a deeper understanding. It was more than a year of waiting to hear a directive that would allow us to return to corporate worship.
And most unexpected of all was the pain that came with the long waiting period we were in. Grief for what had been removed from our lives, longing for a place to call ours once more, a sense of loneliness, anger with God, ourselves and others who had been instrumental in the place where we'd ended up.
What is God doing while you're waiting?
We were forever changed and our lives were not the same as they had been before. In many ways this proved to be a blessing because the intervening time proved to a period of advancement really. While we were still in that waiting season, grappling with all the emotions, we also went even deeper in seeking God. We leaned more heavily upon Him than we had in the season of study that proceeded our waiting season.
Advent foreshortens the waiting season into a mere week. But in reality, a waiting season can last for years. This we have learned firsthand.
The Bible is full of seasons of waiting. Women who have experienced a pregnancy know a good bit about the waiting season. Those of us who find ourselves in an unexpected place due to a life change, a medical condition, a place where we'd never thought we might be, understand the season of waiting. Waiting to get back to a place we recognize. Or even to a new place that isn't this particular painful place of waiting. We have a tendency to think that anywhere but here is a good place to be! But in truth, waiting seasons are like any other season. It's a place we must go through. We need the lessons we must learn to know more about ourselves and about our God. We can't skip this time or take a short cut. We must go through it, in order to get to the next season in our life.
In this week, we find ourselves waiting. Waiting for the expected and the unexpected, too. Waiting to see what the next season will bring, while we go through. Even waiting seasons have a sense of expectation about them, agreed?
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3 comments:
But we don’t like to wait! We live in a get it quick society. Even so,
This post is similar to what we are going through now
Rhonda, I don't think it comes naturally to anyone to wait. Especially when we're sort of pushed or forced into the situation where we must wait. And you are right, part of it is our current society which wants everything the minute we made up our mind that we were going to have it.
Remember, God was silent for 400 years not a word from His chosen prophets and then one night, God himself came into the busy world as a babe. Tne greatest event ever and will be until He comes to gather up His own. Isn't it ironic this happened in a city bustling with people paying taxes? So much in the Bible about waiting. Moses and all these people wandering in the desert for 40 years with all tbeir dreams of the promised land and so many, many other stories. I read but don't learn that when I get impatient and go to plan "b" that if only wait a little longer my heart's desire will be there.
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