I don’t know about you, but I am not a fan of waiting. That’s why I will change checkout lines three times at the grocery store, searching for the fastest line. Or I will give a deep side eye to the slow car going ten miles under the speed limit as I go around that car. How can you go so far UNDER the speed limit? Why aren’t you maximizing your potential?! And why are you holding me up? To be sure, I could use a little more patience in my life, just like Erica Campbell can use a little more Jesus. However, in our fast paced society, where there is a compulsion to move quickly and produce fast results, I find it quite easy to develop such an impatient and hurried attitude. Moreover, our fancy gadgets like our phones, computers and tablets, feed into our need for instant gratification. But a deeply meaningful life cannot consist solely of instant gratification and hurried results. Some rewards of life only come through waiting. This is a lesson I have learned and am still learning.
Recently I listened to a sermon by Rick Warren titled, “Delayed by Design.” In the sermon, he states how God will give us a dream, but there will be a period of intentional delay while we wait for the dream to be fulfilled. The delay is meant as a period to build our character in a way it could never be built had our dream been fulfilled instantly. I also read a post from blogger James Clear titled, Fast Growth is Overrated, in which he argues that it is important to first establish the proper foundation to sustain your growth, rather than seek big results quickly. In listening to the sermon and reading through the blog I began to wonder about those areas of my life where I find myself waiting and wanting faster growth. What part of my character am I developing in this waiting period? How am I ensuring a solid foundation moving forward? In other words, what lessons am I learning by being forced to wait? This is an ongoing process for me, but at least two lessons stand out thus far: 1.) Enjoy the present and 2.) Fighting Life’s Natural Delays only Causes Delays.
Enjoy the Present
In my haste, I realize that too often in life I have been so focused on getting to the next location that I failed to enjoy my present position. I was too ready to finish college and go to law school that I did not fully appreciate my college experience. When law school came, I was so focused on completing that degree that I am afraid I did not maximize that experience either. Even now, as I long to have a family of my own and booming career, I have to catch myself constantly and make sure I am not too consumed with living in the future that I do not enjoy my present. The time I have now I will never have again, and I do not want to look back on this period of my life and wish I had enjoyed it more. Waiting has forced me to live more in the present. There is nothing wrong with dreaming and envisioning the future; I still do both. But there will always be new dreams to dream, and we should not let our dreams be a never-ending carrot placed before us that denies us the ability to enjoy the present.
Fighting Life’s Natural Delays Only Causes Delays
We’ve all been there, stuck in traffic and your lane is not moving. You switch to another lane that is moving, but as soon as you do, that lane stops and the lane you were in begins to move. Had you not been impatient and stayed in your original lane you could be moving too. Instead, your impatience has caused you to stay stopped longer than necessary. This observation is not only true in traffic, but is true in other areas in life where we allow our impatience to control. Often I have found myself trying to fight against the waiting period, or wallowing in in it. In the end I still had to wait, but I was more miserable than before. Not until recently have I come to accept the fact that for some areas of life, I will have to wait. I can either enjoy the wait by enjoying the present, or I can try to fight it and make myself miserable. More importantly, if waiting is meant to build character, then to resist the wait is to delay the building of my character, and that results in a greater wait. In other words, I’m just going from one non-moving lane to the next. Now, I am finally appreciating the constructive work that happens while I wait, and I resist the urge to fight.
But I don’t want to seem like I have reached a point of total contentment with waiting. I still have my moments of wallowing. Yet, I can also see the progress waiting has had in my life. Learning the lessons of waiting is a process whose duration is different for everyone. I can’t promise you smooth sailing if you follow the observations I have made, but I hope they will at least be a comfort to you while you wait.
–Until Next Time–
Palooke
