In the Waiting Place

We love Dr. Seuss in this house.  When my biggest boy reads during his daily quiet time, he differentiates between his book choices with the following labels:  fiction, nonfiction, Pete the Cat, or Dr. Seuss books.  With my teaching background, you have to know this makes my day!  One of his books, which I've read countless times and also adore, is Oh, the Places You'll Go! It never fails to draw wonder and giggles from my kiddos and myself.  Lately though, one section has bothered me because it is not how I want my boys to perceive life.  Yes, I'm that mom; no apologies, because well, this is who I am.

You can get so confused



that you'll start in to race

down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace

and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,

headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go

or the mail to come, or the rain to go

or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow

or waiting around for a Yes or No

or waiting for their hair to grow.

Everyone is just waiting...

NO!  That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape

all that waiting and staying.

You'll find the bright places

where Boom Bands are playing.



{Oh, the Places You'll Go!, Dr. Seuss}

As I sit here writing this entry, (and look back to where I have at least three in draft form which haven't made it to the light of the publish button), I'm waiting.  The past weeks have been filled with areas in my life where waiting is where I must be for now.  Be it, waiting on the sale of a house, waiting on the results of tests, academic and medical, waiting for answers to questions we've prayed over for months/years, I've been waiting.  And, I've waited with friends, with family about things in this life, which just take the life out of you because of the hardness, the chafing on one's heart, the brokenness which ensues. 

In the midst of the waiting, I've tried to follow Dr. Seuss' lead and unwait, if you will?  I've done things to hurry results or decided to just do something or (yep, I am going to say it) I've worried to the point that I can't sleep, I eat my feelings, I am miserable, or I am not present with my family or my responsibilities.  Now, I do agree with Dr. Seuss, I'm not just sitting waiting for my hair to grow!  {But, then again, I'm not fighting cancer, where waiting for my hair to grow might just be where God has me?}  I realize Dr. Seuss' intentions were more likely meant to inspire others to reach goals or to face one's fears or to eventually succeed after failures...But, as one who bows her knee to Jesus as Lord and Savior, I think there is a fine line between his perspective and what scripture calls me to do.

Recently, I listened to part of a sermon by Matt Chandler.  (Sidenote:  this man is waiting and has been waiting and its life and death.  Google his story, please.  Matt Chandler, Village Church, cancer.)  In his sermon, he referenced Psalm 42 and a phrase repeated often in scripture..."WAIT ON THE LORD".  The following words caught my eye and my heart's cry.  How does one wait on the Lord? 

You position yourself under the waterfall of grace

and you wait while you walk in obedience,

one step at a time...

asking for God to restore the joy of your salvation...

and you wait...

because they who wait on the Lord,

he WILL renew their strength

they will mount up with wings like eagle's

they will run and no longer be weary

they will walk and not grow faint.

{Matt Chandler on 'Waiting'}

You see, in the waiting, there is much good, but not necessarily 'feeling good'.  I've found, in "the waiting place" is where He molds me.  And, in the waiting, this is where I am sanctified, because my control is taken away, and I'm left holding what most would deem nothing, but from where I stand, it's everything.  In my waiting place, there are His promises{see parts from Isaiah 40, Psalm 51), His faithfulness, His comfort...all found in His word.  And in His word, is where the waterfall of grace coincides with my reality.  Waiting, according to His standards, is a daily one step at a time process.  It's a letting go of me and my desires, and a rewriting of what I formerly deemed important. 

I'm not writing to tell you I've figured out this waiting thing.  I'm writing to be honest about my struggle to wait as He's called me to do.  Yet, in the moments, by His grace, where I am able to have a taste of what truly waiting on Him is like, I find rest and a quiet encouraged by His "be still and know I am God".  And in the rest of the waiting, I find hope, not in me or in the waiting, but in my Lord and Savior.  He who determines my steps and to which place my steps visit:  waiting one foot forward at a time or moving at a quicker pace.  All the while, I am being redeemed.  And that, my friends, makes the waiting place worth it.  My prayer is that as I wait, others would see His impact on my sinful heart and want to know Him more.

We still love Dr. Seuss in this house.  We just love Jesus more.  Sort of like we love March 1st and celebrating Dr. Seuss' bday.  We just love Christmas and celebrating the birth of the King of Kings more. 😉😉