Wendi {at random}

We've just finished reading Joyce Meyer's Enjoying Where You Are On the Way to Where You Are Going for our weekly devotions at school. Here's my take on it. (Yes, I had to write a one-pager of my thoughts for my file, you know, my permanent record.)

         I feel especially blessed that my outlook has always found the glass to be half-full. In fact, for as long as I could remember, I have considered it a choice to be positive. Being negative is just no fun. Why would I choose to have no fun?

         That sounds simple, and, to be true, it is. So I found this book, for the most part, to be a quick read, a nice reminder, but no great revelation. Joyce Meyer may have suffered from regret and dread, legalism, difficulty choosing a meal, and I can appreciate her candidness in revealing those struggles. But I just don’t share her background. Yes, I’m blessed to have grown up surrounded by joy, even when things weren’t happy. (Thanks, Daddy.)

         What I did glean from the book, however, is mainly from the chapter on God’s Waiting Room. Joy is one thing I’ve got. Patience? Not so much.

1^st Corinthians 10:13 (The Message)

No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it.

         You see, when I make up my mind to do something, I pretty much expect that it’ll happen NOW. It’s no secret that Curt and I long to live back home in Virginia where our families are. But God has seen fit to move us to Ohio, Pennsylvania, and now the Pagan Land of Connecticut. We’ve been gone since Benjy was four months old. He doesn’t know what it’s even like to live in the hug of the mountains, a day trip away from grandparents and porch swings and fried chicken.

         And yet, God has a plan for us that for the time being doesn’t include my plan. Oh, maybe one day, it will. But today I’m in the “waiting season”. And for a while, I hated the wait even as I chose to be filled with joy. Don’t even ask how that’s possible. It just is.

         Recognizing this time as one of waiting and preparation has helped me adjust my expectations. “Many desire to prosper, but not all want to prepare to prosper.” (page 175) I had never looked on this time as a preparation for the place God will take me. But I get it now. 

         If God had told me that I was going to be a teacher in a Christian school back in my early days in the inner city, I’d have scoffed at the idea, and skipped church a bit more. If he’d told me my sister would die at age 37, I’d have quite honestly chosen to live in dread of the year 2008 and I wouldn’t have enjoyed the time I had on earth with her. If He’d seen fit to warn me that I’d not get even a Tylenol when Benjy was born – much less an epidural – then I may very well have no Benjy today.

        

         “Each phase we go through is important. There is something to be learned at every step. It is all part of our preparation. We must ‘graduate,’ so to speak, from each phase or level into the next one, and this comes after we have proven ourselves at our current level. Between all of these stages of preparation, there is a lot of waiting.”

        

         And so I will wait.  I know God’s prepping me and my family for something. I don’t know what, but I can trust that it’s bigger than me. Better than my wildest dreams. And now when my boys ask when we’re moving back to Roanoke, I have an answer at the ready. “When God’s ready to send us back. When God’s ready.” Until then, I will find joy in waiting on the Lord.

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord
Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord

~ Everylasting God, Chris Tomlin