Digging Deeper: Waiting is Hard
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 (NLT)
WAITING IS HARD
Waiting is hard. I know that does not come as a complete surprise, right? Never have you once thought to yourself “I sure hope I have something important and life changing that I get to wait on soon.” No matter how many times we have done it, how old we get, how good or bad we weathered the last season of waiting, it never gets easier. But why is that, and how can we grow our waiting muscle?
Back in the “olden days,” the 1900’s, when it was time to try out for a sports team at the school you had to do one of two things after tryouts: 1. You waited for a congratulatory call from the coach welcoming you to the team, or 2. You waited until the appointed time to drive to the school and search feverishly for your name on the team roster that had been posted on the gym window. I have sat in the waiting room of both those scenarios when time passed excruciatingly slowly. Knowing that I had a good relationship and history with the coaches, as well as the desired skill set they were looking for, did little to nothing to settle the “what ifs” and doubt from swarming through my head in the hours and minutes that ticked waiting for the outcome. I knew in my head, without reason to doubt, that I had what it took to make the team, but until my name was on that piece of paper there was still a chance for something to get squirrely.
Sarah had a lot more on the line than making the Canaan cheer team. She was waiting for the promised child with her husband, and she had been waiting for quite some time. Logically, she could look back and see how the Lord had taken care of them, and she could trace his track record of goodness; but, this was different, wasn’t it? After all, she was old, HE was old, and that ship of possibility had long since sailed. So, she may as well find a way to silence the desire of her heart and that nagging inability to just let it go and live in reality. I have been there, having that self-dialogue rationalizing that yes, God is good and keeps his promises, but I must have just misunderstood.
Why do we do that? Why is it in the waiting that, instead of doubling down on the divine we have witnessed time and again, we become dismissive?
In another season of waiting, I walked through something much harder than cheer tryouts. I, like Sarah, was longing to be a mother to a child I would carry. It was during that time that the Lord gave me my life verse- Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Every doctor appointment, every test, every scan I spoke those words and let them be the foundation for my feet. I forced my fears to conform to the faith that came not from my understanding but the Lord and the Lord alone. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the Lord was growing my faith muscle and giving me the first of what would become many tools to cling to in seasons of waiting.
So how do we get better at waiting? We get more of His promises buried in our hearts. We “meditate on it day and night” so that, when the hard happens and we are asked to wait, we lean not on the ‘what ifs,’ traveling down every rabbit trail or possibility, but sit securely in the unknown trusting that whatever the outcome is, our good good Father planned that outcome in advance for our good and His glory!
Minda Seagraves has been married to her best friend, Russell, for 17 years and is mom to Carson and Maddie. She is also a full-time missionary with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, serving as a chaplain to local female high school teams and supports 380 staff across four states in the U.S. and 20 countries in East Africa as the Regional Director of Talent Advancement with FCA. Minda and her family live in Acworth and have been attending NorthStar Church since 2020.