Put On Pause?

What does it mean to in a waiting period?

I’ve been asking myself this question over and over again in the past 3 months or so. I know that especially in this time of lockdown and waiting, it feels like our lives have been put on pause, on hold, and it can be really draining. It’s crazy because the other night, my church spoke on this exact topic and I knew that this wasn’t just me.

The first picture that comes to mind when talking about this is from the scene in the movie Tangled, where Rapunzel is trapped in the tower singing her beautiful lungs out asking ‘when will my life begin?’ Now I know for her that was a whole different story as she had been trapped in a tower from birth, forbidden to experience life, forbidden to escape, meet people, touch grass… whatever it is that we can do in our everyday lives, she was strictly not allowed to do so. Imagine that, this makes me think that I have no reason to complain at all. What a champ!

Anyways, I know that for me, I have often felt exactly what Rapunzel was feeling in those moments. Life is tough, tougher than it ever was before.

I know that the thought of a waiting room can sometimes look very peaceful, and in a way it is a safe place for you to be. Yet at the same time, if you’re anything like me, it can become super tiresome and exhausting not knowing when the next phase of your life is actually going to start. I remember when I was younger, I always pictured myself at my age travelling the world, being in a serious, God honoring relationship, living in an exotic place, meeting new exciting people. I wanted to be living the best life in my early twenties, yet now looking at the present… we can barely leave our houses without forgetting our masks or if we remembered to sanitize our hands or yet our whole body. (I really wouldn’t be surprised if I have no skin left by the end of Covid.)

But anywho…

I remember chatting to one of my mentors earlier in the year when life seemed to be unbearable (ok that’s a tad bit dramatic,) but you get what I’m saying. And in that phone call I remember pouring my heart out to her as I was trying to wrap my mind around that fact that life wasn’t going to just fall into place that way that I had imagined it to. Trying to wrap my head around the reality of the year that is 2020.

(DUN DUN DAH – scary music in the background)

As I was complaining to her about my struggles, she said one phrase that has stuck with me since then, and all she said was, “Don’t waste the wait.”

I mean, talk about a mic drop right there – BAM!

It’s so true though, it didn’t really sink in when she first said it because of the little pity party that I had made for myself at the time. Yet recently, as we all seem to be going back into lockdown, I’ve found myself thinking about this simple phrase a lot more than usual. As much as we are currently in a waiting season, be it a season of uncertainty, of doubt, loneliness, whatever it is, it’s still a season. It doesn’t mean that it’s going to last forever.

In my mind, I know that this waiting period seemed to have stretched and is still continuously stretching, who knows what sort of life we are going to go back to after this? It can be scary thinking about it but at the same time, there’s an excitement knowing that God is not finished, there’s still so much more in store.

The phrase that my mentor said has been sticking with me big time, how can we not ‘waste this wait?’ As I’ve been thinking about this, God has been revealing to me that just because I may be in a waiting room, it doesn’t mean that my life, or even my calling has ended.

No no, it just means that I’m in a season of refinement, of preparation before the big league. God is still moving, He’s still touching, He’s still setting free. Sometimes it takes that quiet, lonely place for you to be, with no distractions where you learn how to really be still, how to really and truly wait on the Lord. What it means to return to your first love.

John13:7 – “You don’t understand what I’m doing now, but someday you will.”

Wow, God really knew what He was doing when He gave us verses like the one above for us to hold onto. Thank goodness that our Dad doesn’t get rattled by circumstances or fear the way His children do, or else we would literally have no hope.

The conclusion of this blog, or the moral of my strange all over the place writing, is that God still uses us in the waiting. He doesn’t forget about us or write us off when circumstances change. His plans are good, and what He speaks will come to pass. Yet in this time, its learning how to embrace the present and not to waste the wait that God has provided us with.

Let’s jump in, with both hands and feet as we wait on God and let Him bring preparation in the waiting room.

Love,

Caity.