Not Getting Stuck in the Waiting

I’ve been thinking a lot about waiting rooms lately.  Maybe it’s because I am in a season of waiting or it could be that so many of my friends and family are enduring the waiting rooms of life.  WAITING on the doctor’s report whether good or bad, so that they know what emotions to address and what direction to take.  Waiting to find out if they got that promotion or landed that new job.  Waiting on an answer, an opportunity, or direction on where to go next.

Waiting S-T-I-N-K-S!  It’s hard to wait well.  In the waiting, you experience a roller coaster of emotions.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.  

You may approach the waiting room of life with joy because you like new possibilities or you may be apprehensive and fearful as you approach that door.  But it’s what we do in that room that matters.  It’s WHO we hold onto that counts.  We can’t allow our focus to become the crux of the wait or the waiting becomes quicksand that slowly takes over our life and mind.

So, how do we wait well?   We move our focus from the answer we seek and place it on the Author of our lives.  Like the Apostle Paul, we must realize that true contentment comes from abiding in Christ alone.  Philippians 4:11-13 (NIV)  I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.

It is through Christ where we find the courage to face the unknown.  It is in Him that we find the strength to keep going when it would be so easy to give up and get stuck in the waiting.  It is when we lay aside our hopes and desires regarding the outcome, completely letting go, peeling back each finger from the fist of our (this is mine) grip until we completely let go holding nothing back in full surrendered trust.  We can’t do this in our own strength, we can only do it through Him.  Isaiah 26:3 (NKJV) You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.