Waiting is easy until it isn't!

When you live in a town long enough and travel a certain route often enough, you soon become familiar with the cycles of certain traffic lights. You know how many minutes it will be until your light turns green and the pattern it follows. Both sides get a green arrow, or perhaps one side gets the green arrow, and then halfway through the opposing traffic’s side, their light turns completely red while your side remains green and allows you to finally turn left. While no one enjoys waiting for the light to turn green, we learn to wait our turn and can even do so with a reasonable amount of patience. This all changes when the light pattern alters. Let me give you a real-life example.
I was waiting to turn in a double-turning lane when I noticed that our light had not given us the vital green arrow. I began to pay more attention, and when it missed the mark again, I grew annoyed and wondered how much damage I would do to my car by making a U-turn over a concrete barrier. I was not the only one contemplating this idea. The reason our light was not activating was that the person in front had decided to change lanes at the last minute and was diagonally occupying both lanes, so the sensors were not working properly.

​As I continued to debate what to do (seriously, how much damage would that concrete barrier do to my low lying car?), a frustrated gentleman in a truck, got out of his car and started to take hold of the situation. He motioned to one person to back up their car, another to maneuver theirs in this direction, all so the offending car could get in a better position to activate the sensors. I probably should mention that in the midst of directing the traffic, the light finally turned green, and because we were all over the place, only one person made it through, of course! Thankfully, when our next green arrow came, we were ready to move!

Waiting patiently within reason
As I thought about the traffic light incident, I couldn’t help but reflect on how it illustrated the nature of waiting for us. Often, people don’t mind waiting when it is within their envisioned timeline. For instance, when a girl is in her early teens, she knows that she won’t be married until she has graduated high school or college, so she settles into that waiting window with moderate patience. When a couple marries, the bride knows it takes a few months to conceive, so she begins her wait for a baby. Things shift when the timeline is altered or extended.

The young teen has blossomed into a lovely college graduate, yet no man is in sight. The beautiful bride has just celebrated her first anniversary, yet her arms still do not cradle a child. Suddenly, these women are finding it harder and harder to wait. This young girl, who dreamed of marriage and has “patiently” waited for her “season” to arrive, is now disappointed because there is no Prince Charming in sight. The bride watched the months pass with no evidence that a baby was any closer to arriving, and her heart began to ache a little more.

Second round of waiting
Both of these women have arrived in what some might label the second round of waiting, one that can prove among the hardest. For the one waiting for her suitor to come, her excitement and hope begin, ever so slightly, to wane. After a few more years pass by with no gentlemen interested in even getting to know her name, she begins to look or linger longer in front of the mirror. She is desperately trying to discern the reason for the delay. Something must be wrong with her, perhaps internally or externally. This sends her on a frantic quest to overthrow or overcome her foes in order to secure matrimony. The intensity of the quest increases with each extension of waiting. She tries every diet plan, reads countless self-help books, and polls her family and friends for what a guy is looking for in a girl. 
The hopeful mother is often faced with a similar quest. She begins researching health tips to aid conception and consults her doctor for additional advice. She alters her diet and perhaps adds exercises she heard could help, but still nothing. Maybe, she thinks, the problem isn’t physical but spiritual. She begins to scrutinize every action and decision she has made in the last decade, hoping to find the “answer”. She confesses everything she can remember and spends extra time reading her Bible and praying, but still her womb remains empty. 
Tragically, this is the typical response to any extended season of waiting, when we are in the second round, with no idea whether it will ever happen. This is a critical state for the believer, and it can only be done with two key essentials.

Two essentials to Waiting
Trust in God and knowledge of God are vital to those who are in a season of waiting. When what we have hoped for, especially when they are good things like marriage and children, don’t arrive according to the timeline we thought they would, waiting can be difficult unless we trust in God and rest in our knowledge of Him.

To put our trust in someone is to believe in their character, which stems from what we know of them. You are banking on it. This is why our time in the Word of God and our communication with Him through prayer are so important. It is how we grow in our knowledge of God, which in turn bolsters our trust in Him.

Remember that Naomi was able to confidently advise Ruth to sit still, in the midst of a turbulent event that would determine her future, because she rested in the character of Boaz. We can make the same bold declaration when we learn more about our God. His character is as unchanging as His love for us.

We can trust in Him as we attend yet another bridal shower or see our last single friend change her relationship status on Facebook. We can trust Him when we hold another negative pregnancy test in the bathroom. I want you to know that none of these statements is made lightly, because I understand the tears and hurt that unfulfilled dreams can cause. I also want you to know that every time I brought them to God, He met me there. He never diminished my dreams, but He did ask me to entrust them and their fulfillment to Him. I am learning that the more I know about my God, the greater my trust in Him becomes. He is sovereign, which means there is nothing I can do to delay the plans He has for me, and He does have one. 
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.  Jeremiah 29:11
Can I encourage you, my friend, to just spend a little extra time with the One who formed you with purpose, who calls you by name and loves you with an everlasting love? I promise, the more you do, the easier the waiting will become as your heart slowly rests in the goodness and greatness of your Good Shepherd.