Finding Joy day 6

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to reap, a time to love, a time to hate...

Words to a song that I sang at the top of my lungs back in the day.  No, I won't say what day that was. But it was so long ago that fashion has gone around at least 10 times, and is now back again.

A time to everything.  A time for love, hate, joy, peace.  Today was my time for waiting.  Well, another one of them.  No, not waiting for the mailman, not waiting for a package from UPS.  Not waiting for a person to show up who is late.  Waiting, sitting on the clock actually, for my computer to do something.

Apparently hitting it doesn't work.  Inanimate objects have no feelings, or so they say.  However, I do believe that if it could have stuck a tongue out at me, it would have.  I had one of those difficult cases to complete today, and it was TIME to complete it, and I was ready to complete it, but the computer just kept giving me its little hourglass.  I know that somewhere, behind that screen, is some little man with a grin on his face video taping all of my responses to my frustration, getting ready to put it up on viral video somewhere.  In light of that, I decided to play some music while I waited, and what popped up?  Turn, Turn, Turn by the Byrds.  I started singing.  Pretty soon my foot was tapping, and I began to sway in my office chair.  And as I let the music soothe my frazzled spirit, the thought occurred to me that half of our lives are spent waiting to do something, sometimes anything, and that so far it hasn't killed me, or anyone else I know of. I decided that I had better behave myself and act like who I am supposed to be, a child of the King.

The scripture says that those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.  But notice, that it says waiting upon the Lord.  It does not mention waiting in traffic, or in line at the grocery store, or over at the motor vehicle division.  It is not an inactive word, this waiting that the Bible tells of.  It is an active word.  It implies that we are busy doing something else, while we are hoping, praying, and yes, waiting, for God to work in our lives.  And yet it still means to wait.

I prayed for something to happen a few years back.  There had been a row in our family, and the parties involved were not only not speaking to each other, they were avoiding family gatherings if they thought the other party was showing up, and even avoiding the part of town the other party lived in.  Although I could not understand why they didn't just kiss and make up, and although I tried with all my being to get them to forgive each other, nothing worked. This was something that only God could do; work out the differences between their hearts.

Oh, Yes, I did try to fix it.  My waiting was more like encircling the camp and forcing the captives to concede to my victory.  It didn't work.  There are after all things that are not within my (or your) power to perform.  Then I tried the run to Daddy and cry and whine tactic.  I prayed, I wept, I worried, I watched.  In all of that, I had yet to learn to wait on God.  When I finally gave up, and stopped counting how long it was that I had given up, and lost track of who said what when, God just up and did His amazing work.

My family members are talking now, making up for lost time, and it was nice to be at dinner with them all, hug them all, kiss them all, and no fights broke out.  But the best thing of all was this:  God fulfilled His promise to me!!  All I had to do was wait! Truth be told, it took three years, and I could say that God was late, but apparently that is not the case.  For Him to work this miracle in my family, to see hearts changed and lives changed and love grow, is a miracle!  And miracles don't happen overnight.  Sometimes you have to wait.

Today, I find my joy in waiting for you, Lord.