Finding Faith in Seasons of Waiting

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6

The other night, I was chatting with a friend who finally accepted a position after a long search for the next step in her career. Excitement buzzed through the phone waves as we gleefully celebrated.

I’m just so happy for you. I know this process has been…well, laborious. I said.

You know, she replied, I just chalk it up to a God thing. After all the other interviews for all the jobs that didn’t pan out, something always just didn’t feel right. I would be concerned about one thing or another. But this one, it just felt like the right fit all around. And it’s just good to know that when I’d be crying after once again not receiving the job I’d hoped for that God was over there like ‘Just you wait, I’ve got the perfect thing on its way to you.'” 

Having big faith and trust in God is down right near impossible sometimes. But I’ve found it’s most difficult in the season of waiting and intense hope. We’re in a season of waiting at the moment. And when my friend asked how things were going, I answered candidly.

I know it’s coming, the upswing. It always does. I’ve seen God show up time and time again in his perfect timing that it’s just comforting to know none of this is really in my hands at all. He’s never let us down before, so why waste the energy worrying?

The truth is, nothing is really up to us. And while that can be a terrifying thought for someone without faith, it can also serve as the ultimate relief. I look back over our lives, to every other rock bottom, and I can see God show up in ways I couldn’t have planned for.

When we were first married, Jonathan was finishing his master’s degree at UGA. The last requirement for his graduation was an internship. After several rounds of interviews, we packed the car and traveled the 10 hours south to Tampa for one last round. We spent our days touring apartments, picking our next home. I visualized living just down the road from my sister and her three kids. I could see our lives there, clear as day.

When we returned, we put in our notice at our apartment in Athens, and then we waited for the call. T-10 days til moving day, the call came, and it wasn’t a good one. Left to scramble at the last minute, Jonathan ended up in contact with a school down in Charlotte. Now, I’ll be sure to tell you all one day about how, just six months earlier–totally unaware of the whole internship drama, we’d decided to put all our energy into somehow moving to Charlotte in the future. Neither of us had spent much time here (at all). But for some reason, we could both feel the tug on our hearts that said hey, Charlotte will be your home some day. But for now, when the internship opportunity popped up in Tampa, we both forgot all about it–deciding to go wherever the wind blew us.

Well, that school Jonathan found in Charlotte offered him an immediate opportunity. That job is the reason we moved to Charlotte. That job is the reason he ended up coaching at Campbell for two years. That job is the reason we had the best health insurance we’ve ever had when I was so terribly sick back in 2013. That job brought us home, twice.

We couldn’t see that job coming. We were so busy white knuckling the Tampa opportunity that we didn’t even have time to worry about anything else. And I truly believe that God sends us those decoys in our seasons of waiting on purpose–something to distract us, to put all our energy into, to keep us occupied while The Big Blessing is on its way to us.

I feel like seasons of waiting are all too common in our adult years. Waiting to find the right house. Waiting for the next career move. Waiting on the next payday. Waiting for those two pink lines. And as adults, we crave control. We’ve figured out the formula in life, too wise for our own good, we set plans into motion to force those things along. We exhaust ourselves trying to push our square peg into the unknown round hole, desperate to make something work.

But the greatest relief comes from knowing that God has a plan for us. And he’s known it all along. Every step, every misfire, every disappointment leads us right onto the path he’s intended for our lives. And while we so desperately crave control, often times we just end up prolonging the process. God is already working on that thing you’re worrying about. You just have to take your hands off the wheel.

The lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

2 Peter 3:9