The Waiting Season
Let’s be honest. No one likes a waiting season. Waiting seasons are normally described as a dry, impatient, heart longing, and mostly miserable season. At least that’s how most people describe it and how I’ve even experienced it. Up until recently I believed that was what a waiting season was. In fact — If you’re a visual person like me, you’re probably picturing sitting on that wrinkly paper they roll out for you on the uncomfortable squishy seat/bed in the doctors office patient room waiting to be seen. You’re listening closely for footsteps that will hopefully lead to a quick knock on your door with the turn of the doorknob closely behind. You’re waiting and waiting…and you start to think, “Did they forget I was in here?” You may be like me and after 30-45 minutes of waiting, you re-open the door so they know you’re still in there!
Unfortunately, most waiting seasons aren’t taken advantage of like they should be.
Let me explain it like this. I heard this the other day on my favorite app, Tik Tok, where someone said “Jesus waited for 30-something years for 3 years of intense impactful life changing dedicated work.” That’s when it hit me. Jesus didn’t sit around bored just casually walking around waiting for His time to shine. Jesus worked and prepared. We may not know all of the work He did within those 30 years of waiting, but all I know is that when it was time for Him to start His ministry, He didn’t waste anytime. He hit the ground running and was prepared.
We’ve all been in waiting seasons in our life. Maybe you’re waiting for your dream home, or your dream job, or your boyfriend to propose, or your turn to be pregnant and have a baby.
You may be in a waiting season but how are you waiting? Are you waiting around scrolling on Tik Tok and continuously growing envious of everyone around you that has everything you want? Are you waiting around doing the bare minimum because why waste the energy for a job that doesn’t care about you? Right? Or why take care of the small tiny house you have because you just want to keep blaming the clutter on the “there’s just no room” excuse? Yep—been there, done that.
What if — we worked and prepared in our waiting season? What if we took care of what God gave us while we waited? What if we focused on the goal ahead and worked towards it while we waited? For example, you’re waiting for your boyfriend to propose. Instead of being miserable and disappointed every time you go to a nice dinner and leave without a ring on your hand, you soak up the last bits of being single/unmarried? Spend a little more time doing what you want, travel everywhere, have all the girl nights you want. (Not saying you can’t do this when you’re married, but you’ll have another person to think about then.)
My point is this — don’t waste your waiting season. Think of it instead as a preparation season. Maybe what you’re waiting on is ready, but you’re not ready for it. There may be some growth God needs you to go through before you reach the end of the waiting season. Or maybe what you think you need…isn’t really what you need. Maybe you need to learn contentment (that was my lesson). There are SO many lessons in the waiting season, learn them! Grow in them! Trust God and know that He already knows exactly what your life is going to plan out to be. He wrote the story—trust the author. Even in the waiting seasons.
In the wise words of my therapist that now live on a sticky note on my fridge, “Love where you’re at until God gives you more.”
With love,
Rachael