If there has been one prominent theme in my life, it has been the theme of waiting. In joking with my best friend, I often refer to myself as “the slow bloomer” because while others seem to be enjoying things “right then”, I am always the last to catch up. When I was a teenager I remember wanting my license and a car really bad. Others were driving to school and I was still taking the big yellow school bus. I ended up not getting my license until my senior year in college. Talk about waiting.
I also remember graduating from graduate school and thinking that job opportunities were going to be overflowing. I was constantly hearing about my former classmates landing jobs and there I was, still an unemployed graduate. I was submitting several applications per week in any area I could although my desire was to get a job in the town where I graduated since it was very close to my family. After a year of applying, I finally landed a job at a place where I did my undergraduate internship. I was excited to have a job opportunity but the job was 2 hours away. I ended up relocating to that town, having many more job opportunities since that first job, and living in that town for about five years. After almost five years, I finally landed a job in the location where I wanted to be in the beginning. Some might ask, well why didn’t God allow you to just start off where you wanted to be in the beginning, why take the long route? Well, there is beauty in the waiting game and lessons to be gained.
My mom use to always say “Good things come to those who wait”. I always felt as if she was saying this as a way of telling me that I shouldn’t be so impatient, but that statement has so much truth and meaning. Everything that I have ever waited for has turned out to work out for my good. Although I didn’t get a license or car until my last year in college, I received a car as a gift from my sister with no car payments at all. It was worth the wait. Although I had to wait almost five years before landing a job in the town where I wanted to be, I acquired so much experience, spiritual growth and professional growth during that period of waiting. All of that was preparation to receive a greater blessing: “a setup for a come up”.
I once read a quote that stated “If God is making you wait, then you are in good company”. There are so many stories in the Bible that teach the beauty in waiting. The story that immediately comes to my mind is the story of Sarah and Abraham. God made a promise to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations and would have several descendants. Abraham was almost 100 years old when God made the promise to him and Sarah was 90 years old, well pass the years of childbearing. After probably waiting all their youth to have a child, God fulfilled his promise when they were elderly. There is beauty in waiting.
So if you are playing the waiting game and you feel yourself losing patience. Remember that whatever you are waiting for will be worth the wait. Whether you are waiting on your career to take off, waiting on the man of your dreams, or waiting to be healed from an illness you’ve had your entire life, remember that God will fulfill whatever promise he made to you and if he’s making you play the waiting game, trust that you are going to come out a winner.