Winter Waiting

Made it! By the skin of my teeth I made it. From now on I promise to write a post when it’s below freezing, except on Mondays. My weekend = Mondays. That’s my man’s day off, so for the next freezing Mondays let’s just call it a happy surprise if there is a post, k?

So when I took to finding anything else wintery that I am thankful for…I came up with a big fat nothing. But when I remembered that I promised I would write about something good that comes from winter, I came up with this…

Waiting. Waiting sucks, but waiting is good. (yea people it sucks, and I’m allowed to say that now and if you want refined writing check back during spring. Oh also, check back when I’m no longer on a 30 day whole foods only cleanse, I might have a bit more snark until then.) Waiting is not ever ever easy. Waiting is hard, but it’s engrained into every part of our lives. Sometimes we try to force things to happen now now now, but that’s not how God intended it. Look for like a millisecond at the Bible and you will find lots of waiting. Waiting for freedom, waiting for children, waiting for a Savior, waiting is what makes the true stories of the Gospel so compelling.

Here’s one thing waiting is not. Waiting is not a cliché little game that God plays with you to make the end result “better.” I hate that. I hate when people tell a mommy without a baby that her waiting will just make her love her future child that much more. I hate when people casually tell singles that if they get good at waiting the right way, that God will give them their soul mate “when they least expect it.” I hate it when a hurting person is disregarded because “they just need to be patient.” Waiting is good, but it isn’t easy and it isn’t a game. Waiting is personal and hard.

Here’s how we are blessed in the midst of waiting. We are blessed with the opportunity to press in with all our might to the One who ends waiting. Through waiting we can connect with the longing with which all of creation waited for the Son of God to arrive. When we wait with our whole entire heart thrown into a trusting and authentic relationship with Jesus, we come to know Jesus and experience his love in rich and emaculate ways. When we wait we are forced to learn the one lesson that, given the choice, we’d never choose to learn. We learn the gift of contentment. We learn that contentment is the only thing that makes sense in the light of all that we have gained, once we have gained salvation.

Waiting for the wretched awful winter to finally stinking end, will not make the spring better but the way that I wait will determine the quality of my life now, today. Because today, I wait.