In the Waiting…..
Photo by Saad Chaudhry on Unsplash
I don’t know if anyone dislikes waiting as I do. Urrrgghh! I used to find the waiting season as one of the most anxious phases of my life. Sometimes, I wished I could fast-forward to the end to know the outcomes. Although, I trust the end will always be beautiful, but the question remained “when?” And to take off the anxiety of waiting, I will seek ways to distract myself.
This attitude caused me to become oblivious to what went on around me and in me while waiting. I found myself losing gratitude for the simple blessings of life because I was fixated on having that thing/getting to that next phase immediately. I feel like this is an attitude that is common with our generation, we all want things now. When we can’t have it, we look for the next thing to distract us.
I began writing about this because I thought of two distinct scenarios that happened recently and my attitude towards the waiting. In the first scenario, I had been waiting for feedback from an interview, for a job I really loved. The interviewer had clearly informed me that I was going to hear back from her by the end of 2 weeks. But after the first week, I was constantly checking my mail, and it got so bad that at some point my screen was split into two; my email tab and the work I was doing. I lived those days with a high level of anxiety about what could be the outcome. During this period, I lost hours of sleep, rest, productivity, and peace of mind just from being impatient.
While in the second scenario, I had been working out for a while, and after a few weeks, I became impatient; I wanted my body transformation to happen now. I began cramming 3 days of exercise routines into 1 day because I thought the double the effort, the quicker the results. But sadly enough that’s not how transformation works.
I have begun reflecting on my attitude towards waiting and I have found that the process requires the virtues of trust, patience, gratitude, and contentment.
Trust- that in the end, all things will work out for our good because we have a God that loves us so much, cares about every detail of our lives and has great plans for our future.
Patience- that sometimes the things we seek require us going through a process that requires time.
Gratitude- that even while waiting, there are good things happening around us each day that we can be thankful for.
Contentment- that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. So whether I have it now, or I am yet to have it, I can be content with whatever I have and where I am.
So these are the values, I am learning to adopt in my life, in whatever waiting-season I find myself. I have found that adopting these values gives me peace. It allows me to embrace the process, and it allows me to appreciate the little things of life that bring me joy in the waiting. Above all, I am learning to live with contentment and enjoy life even while waiting.
