The Waiting Game

       
Waiting is an art. Skillfully waiting on your wife while she shops, is a task that many husbands have not been able to master to date, I would be chief among them! As a child, I remember laying down in bed on Christmas Eve, waiting for what seemed like eternity for the visit from "Old Saint Nick", which would magically produce a plethora of shiny new toys, games, and yes even some socks or underwear! Waiting in line at a restaurant can at times feel like your name just keeps getting bumped to the bottom of the list and the prospects of having dinner appear bleak at best. Yes, waiting can be challenging, yet it doesn't have to be about "wasted" time, waiting can and should be a productive experience that builds your character and actually benefits us during what many people would deem "down time". I am resolved that two types of waiting, quietly and actively waiting are not only productive, but also necessary to becoming the person you want to become.
      In Otis Redding's classic hit "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" the crooner tells a story about a man who is just sitting on the dock of the bay, wasting time, watching the tide roll away. Great song, just never really thought about how sad it is that the subject of the song is just sitting around feeling like all he is doing is basically watching his life fade away just like the tiny remnants of a wave that are pulled back into the ocean by the forces of the tide. How sad that anyone would just sit around waiting for something to happen in their life that would change the trajectory of someone's purpose in life. I believe there are a variety of different types of waiting ranging from impatiently pounding on the table wanting to be served waiting, all the way to the other end of the spectrum of hopelessly waiting for the tide to roll out to sea one more time. But, between those two ends of the spectrum there are two types of waiting that can be productive and also beneficial to understanding who we are and what our life's purpose is meant to be.
     The first type of waiting is quietly waiting. When we quietly wait, we ask for something through prayer and then we move forward accepting that God's plan for our life and those we may be praying for is bigger than anything we can even come close to imagining. For example, you may have a loved one that is lost to an addiction and you just want that situation to be fixed. Snap of the fingers fixed. Impossible? Absolutely not. Likely? Possible? I don't have the guaranteed answer to that, but I do know that if we ask and then we trust that God is real, God hears our prayers, and that God has a master plan for anything and everything that happens in life, then we can patiently wait in faith and our mind finds a peace that is not possible without God. So many of us have it in our heads that God is our servant. If we ask Him to do something He should hop to it and it should be done. Sorry, but that's not how it works. Actually, God has given us a list of things to do in the Bible and telling Him how to do His job isn't on that list! The Bible is clear in it's directions “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." Matthew 7:7-8. Asking means we are asking in accordance with His will, so don't think just because we pray we are in accordance with His will, that only happens when we spend time with God studying His word, learning His ways, and then living in accordance with His will. That is the true definition of patiently waiting. But what about seeking and knocking what types of waiting would that qualify as you ask? Those are what I have labeled as "actively waiting".
     How is it possible to be active and be waiting at the same time? Actively waiting is more about praying, hoping, and trusting, but not sitting around expecting. Hope and expectancy are different. You can expect certain things to happen because the variables that need to occur are in place for something to happen. An example of this is we can expect that each day we are going to experience a sunrise and a sunset. We expect it and we can wait around on the dock of the bay waiting for it to happen each day. It's pretty much a given, the variables necessary for that event to transpire are in place. On the other hand, we ask for something and then we hope that it happens. We have faith that if we pray in accordance with God's plan everything will work out exactly the way that it is supposed to work out and it is our job to move forward with life, working, trusting, and believing that God's plan is in action. It is our job to do all we can to make sure we are part of His plan to benefit those we are praying for and as a result benefit ourselves as well. 
      Things may work out exactly the way we have prayed and asked, or the outcome may look nothing like what we in our human capacity prayed, but if we are asking, then seeking, and actively knocking on life's door of opportunity we will find that it isn't us that is waiting on God to intervene, but instead it is God who is waiting on us to get up and get out there doing all we can for Him! Don't get caught waiting on things to change in your life, you were made exactly for this moment in time and this place that you are currently situated. Get out and do something!

Coach Carter