I’m a fairly impatient person. I like things done now or even better, done yesterday. I don’t. like. to. wait. Especially when I know I’m about to encounter an obstacle, I’d rather just get it over with. The wait to face to something, to do something, to have something can be agonizing. But I am learning that there is a lot to experience when you just slow down and patiently wait.
I think my impatience has to do with me not wanting to be in an uncomfortable situation or dealing with the fact that I am out of control of a situation. However, the reality of the situation is that in life, we are truly in less control of our situation than we think. God is the only one who really controls everything. And it is in the times that we feel like we are completely out of control of changing our situation that He makes us wait and we find out who we truly are. Waiting makes us face feelings that unsettle us or face fears that we have been too busy to confront. Waiting is a place where God tests us and shapes us into who He wants us to become. In waiting we become completely dependent upon Him, which is scary when you are always used to doing things in your own time and depending on yourself. But waiting and discovering what God wants from you, who He wants you to be and learning about your inner strength through Him (which is really the Holy Spirit) is a beautiful thing. There comes a point where you are no longer self-assured, but God assured in everything that you do and are about to face. You learn that God really does want the best for you and any pain in waiting you experience is not Him trying to hurt you, but to make you grow.
In a way, waiting can be a sort of birthing experience. You labor and groan in the wait, but once you discover God is just shaping you, you get the beautiful birthing gift of following God’s way for your life. And that is always most certainly worth the wait.