I'm Waiting!!!!

I found myself pushing the button on the elevator again. Close Doors. Close Doors. I know they never work; I know the doors don't close any more quickly on these elevators simply by pushing the button. I've pushed it dozens of times. I continued to try anyway. I was in a hurry; I had things I wanted to do and get done. Anything to speed up the process. 

Have you ever felt that way? Oh, I'm not just talking about elevator doors, but life. Have you ever been offered a promotion or transfer: You're perfect for this position, your boss says. Within the first week in your new role, you're ready to quit the company altogether. You can't seem to assimilate anything you've ever learned or done with your new responsibilities; you feel like a complete failure. This is not what I expected. Why aren't things falling into place as they should? I thought about that as I stood awkwardly in that elevator, doors wide open, no one getting on or off, going nowhere. Waiting. I think I'm in a season like that right now. Things have changed, I'm not caring for my mother full-time anymore. Doors have flung wide open: All those things you've been wanting to do, all those things you've been called to do? It's time! And yet, life has not transformed itself instantaneously. I find myself standing in that elevator, prepared to go, but still waiting for the doors to close. This new season I'm standing in doesn't seem to be going anywhere. God, You've given me all of this time in my day now, but I sit down to write and come up with nothing. You've taken the heavy weight of caring for Mom and being tied to this house and her schedule, but I'm feeling heavier in my heart and more lost than ever.

But then... But God... In Genesis 41, we learn that Joseph was promoted to a position of authority in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself. In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief administrator over all the wise men of Babylon. Daniel 3 tells us Daniel's three friends were promoted as well. Foreigners promoted, elevated, revered even in lands they originally found themselves as slaves and captives. Do you think any of these men had any clue what they were doing when they became rulers of a foreign country? Do you think they got it right every time? And I'm sure there were skeptics, those who, perhaps, questioned the loyalty of these foreigners. Do you think there were those in authority, those who had their eyes on a position of greater power, who made life difficult for them? Of course there were! (Daniel 6) These men didn't necessarily assume their roles, step into new seasons without any hiccoughs or resistance. What makes you think they were immediately whisked away to the heights of leadership and proficiency? What makes you think you will be?

Waiting isn't easy, whether you're waiting for an answer, or you've got your answer and you're just waiting for the elevator doors to close. We expect movement, progress. I'm ready; let's go! A friend of mine waited almost thirty years for the word God spoke to her about her ministry to actually begin manifesting itself in large ways. She hadn't misheard. God hadn't forgotten. There were just some other things that needed to be handled and some things God desired to do in her before she took on the role she'd been given. Even then, it wasn't an overnight kind of thing. Her last child didn't leave home, she didn't retire from her job, and BAH-BAM! the next day, her schedule was filled with women longing to hear the gospel, longing to be set free from sin through the Christ who employed her. 

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 says there is a season for everything, and that God makes all things beautiful in its time: when it has been prepared, when it is ready to serve Him best. In Luke's account of Jesus' birth, he tells us events "came to pass," and that "the days were completed" for Mary to deliver Jesus. Four hundred years of silence from God preceded these events, in spite of millennia of prophecy before that! Sometimes it takes a minute for the elevator doors to close and movement to begin. At least, from where we're situated. But God is getting things in place, getting people prepared, making sure His plan will come to fruition as He designed it. We can trust Him to get things moving and complete what He has started. In His perfect time.