I’m always waiting. Seriously. Always.
Always waiting on people to get ready, for people to get snacks, for people to finish something so we can leave.
I’ve realized that a lot living in 24/7 community.
It’s forced me to think about what I do in the waiting.
Am I getting upset, praying through it, looking around for someone to talk to or pray for, reading, or just sitting and listening?
Because it’s in the waiting that He’s working.
Our World Race journey has been full of the daily moments of waiting whether it’s on travel day trying to cross the border and waiting in line or waiting on our ministry host to be ready to go or waiting for the next country because we are tired of the current one.
This month has been full of ATL moments (ask the Lord), which is what home life will look like. And it’s shown me that the best things happen in the waiting.
For example, Jess, Cristin, and I were waiting on Brad to get a SIM card, and Jess suggested we pray for the lady at the entrance of the store who had a deformed leg and who was asking for money. So we prayed for her, and Jess gave her her orange juice we had gone to the store for.
That happened in the waiting. Jess had the eyes to see her, and stop for her. And it was so rewarding. She was so sweet and appreciative.
Another example is last night after our run when we went to go get Brad at the basketball courts and sat down to wait for him. We got to talk to a lady that was sitting there and she’s wanting to go running with us for the rest of the month. She was so joyful and friendly. That happened in the waiting, not the rushing.
We are constantly rushing through moments and seasons trying to get to the next thing and be the best thing. When the best things happen in the unplanned waiting moments.
We have also had so many great conversations with other travelers at our hostel waiting around for one another or waiting on food to cook or whatever it may be.
If we choose to press into the waiting, then God uses those moments.
Life is a collection of a million little moments and choices, and built upon one another, lined up through the days and the years, they make a life, a person.
I was reading this book called Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist and she talks a lot about the little moments. “The big moments are the daily moments of courage and forgiveness and hope that we grab on to and extend to another. That’s the drama of life, swirling all around us, and generally I don’t even see it, because I’m too busy waiting to become whatever it is I think I am about to become. The big moments are in every hour, every conversation, every meal, every meeting.“
He’s working in each conversation, each loving word, each act of forgiveness.
She talks about living pedestrian lifestyles, where we walk through life instead of running through it. The World Race journey has definitely felt like an actual race because of how fast it has gone. But my favorite moments are the ones where I saw someone and sat with them, one person, the things that happened in our down time, in the slowness. When I chose to cherish the present.
And the things I regret are when I was wishing away a moment, or wishing away a specific week, or country.
“I believe that this way of living, this focus on the present, the daily, the tangible, this intense concentration not on the news headlines but on the flowers growing in your own home, this way of living has the potential to open up the heavens, to yield a glittering handful of diamonds where a second ago there was only coal.”
