Patience during the Preparation
- Heather Williams
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
In my excitement to begin the plan, God has placed in front of me; I find myself struggling without clear timelines. To finally start the next chapter… I want to just skim over end of this one. I find myself eagerly imagining what starting fresh in the next community might be or anticipating the next dwelling.
Why?
The music has started to change. It’s getting more suspenseful like in the old mystery tv series when something bad is about to happen. What felt like home feels less like home… the neighborhood that we thought we were called to make a difference is subtly pushing us out.
Change brings transformation but also tension. I feel this tug of war between “let’s git ‘er done already” and waiting on God’s timing.
Difficult conversations are in the near future with employers, clients and even extended family members about change and how it will affect them.
The process of purging things while maintaining work and summer fun is overwhelming. Like a deer frozen in the headlights— I know the purging and packing must begin. But where I’m moving what I need to keep is unknown.
This chapter is closer to the end.
But God is still outlining the next one.
Patience has two parts of the whole—circumstantial and interpersonal.
Circumstantial patience is the ability to endure delays, to persevere through hardship, or to withstand physical discomfort. To wait in a long traffic jam (hello, summer construction!) without succumbing to road rage would be a first-world issue. For our brothers and sisters in other countries it would be a holy endurance while being persecuted for their faith (it’s getting closer to our world than you think).
Interpersonal patience is the ability to keep one’s own emotions steady while teaching others to manage their own. Still, it is the ability to stay calm while someone is yelling in your face or in a classroom of children gone wild. (Kudos to those gifted to be teachers of preschoolers)
To wait upon the Lord is to joyfully anticipate while being actively patient.
“¶I wait [patiently] for the Lord, my soul [expectantly] waits, And in His word do I hope.”
Psalms 130:5 AMP
Hope is trusting in His timing; while preparing for the next chapter. One cannot use “waiting on the Lord” as an excuse to not put effort into the preparation.
It means doing the hard things in the present so that when the Lord says now— you’re ready.
““Be dressed and ready for active service, and keep your lamps continuously burning.”
Luke 12:35 AMP
Just like joy and peace, patience is not passively grown; rather it is an active fruit of the Holy Spirit that requires discipline and diligence to cultivate.
~heather joy aka ThePonderingPosie
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