Waiting is hard. Even when you are patient, which I have always considered myself to be, waiting is harder the longer you have to wait. Recently, I have been doing a lot of waiting. It’s trying.
Waiting and Waiting and Waiting
My family and I recently moved halfway across the country, leaving our families and the majority of everything we’ve ever known 14 hours away. This includes the home that we purchased a little over 4 years ago. The home has been on the market for more than 6 months and had zero offers. We’re waiting (not so patiently).
It’s a good home – beautiful hardwood floors, fresh paint, and in a decent neighborhood. The drawback? A steep driveway – at least, that’s every person’s reason for not making an offer. We quite liked the driveway…no one is going to walk up the hill to steal packages off of the porch, our cars were often left unlocked with little to no worry, and walking to get the mail could be considered our daily exercise.
So, with comment after comment regarding the driveway, there is nothing we can do but wait for the right person to see what we saw in it. It is difficult on our finances and can be very stressful, but in all the waiting I have found that God is trying to tell us something.
God’s Timeline in Waiting
This past week I stumbled upon a devotional about waiting. It was from Wendy Pope and called “Wait and See.” This devotional seemed to pop up when I needed it most, so I’m thinking it was sent directly from God (and YouVersion) himself!
One of the things that have stuck with me since reading the devotional was that God’s timeline does not always align with our own expectations. You could be waiting for literally years before getting anywhere. You might know that you were meant to do something – it might be a feeling or some sign from God. However, there could be something getting in the way that is out of your control.
When Waiting Becomes More Waiting
God has a plan that we do not see. It is one that we might never understand, or it could be something that becomes clear when the waiting is over. What is important, however, is what you do with the waiting. You wait and you wait, but what do you do to take action in the meantime? Do you simply sit and do nothing? Do you beg the Lord for guidance? Patience?
I don’t have the right answer. I’ll be honest. Sometimes when the waiting gets to be too much, I give up and move on to the next door that is easier to get through. It has to be easier when there is no waiting. Have you done this, too?
These other doors have been opened because they are part of the plan! God needs you to experience other things prior to stepping through the door you are waiting to open. This happened to my family when we had plans to move out of state.
Road Blocks and Waiting
In our home state, EMS is hugely underpaid and undervalued. This might be true in most states, but my husband felt that a change would improve his mental health. Since he has never wanted to be anything other than a Paramedic, changing careers was not an option. We both felt that a change would be good for our family. A different city could give each member of our family better opportunities in various areas of our lives.
Initially, we felt as though we would be headed south. My husband had a job interview with a great company and we loved the area during our visit. He simply had to pass a test within the six months of his interview and he would have the job. When we returned home from our initial visit, we had plans to return to the city in a couple of months so that he could take the test. Instead, the week that we got back to our home, we discovered that my pregnancy was potentially dangerous.
Rather than arranging another trip south, we instead had to plan how to survive on one income until I got a disability check. It may have seemed that God closed this door – and, in a way, he did. Ultimately, the move out of state was not something that he completely blocked.
After a couple of months off work, I was able to get in to see a specialist and determine that my pregnancy was not at risk. By this time, it was too close to my due date to travel several hours from home, so my husband was unable to go back and take the test before the baby came. Then, having a new baby is not the time to travel away from your family, so he never got to take the test.
Waiting on a Dream
Our dreams of moving out of state seemed to be put on hold indefinitely. Then my husband got an email. A respected hospital halfway across the country was in desperate need of paramedics. He applied, got a phone interview, and was hired the following week. The sign-on bonus that covered the cost of the move was a blessing that made it possible. Within the span of a year, one door was slammed in our faces and another was opened wide.
So, with a two-year-old, a seven-month-old, and two dogs, we packed up everything we owned in a 26 foot trailer and moved 14 hours from home. It was a crazy move – one that involved a lot of stress and one that fulfilled our waiting game. Now that we’re here, we are still waiting on our house to sell, but it seems pretty obvious that God has a plan for us.
We have faith that our former home will sell. We don’t know why it has been such a long process. Perhaps God is testing our faith. He may even be attempting to draw us closer. No matter the reason, we must trust in His plan and we know that things will turn out as they should.
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. – Psalm 27:14 NIV