I recently passed the six month mark for returning home from the Race. I would like to say that I purposefully didn’t write anything for those six months; that I was settling in, and seeing the ways in which God would be growing me in this new season of life. But if the race taught me anything, it’s that I cannot gloss over the rougher moments of life – no, honesty is required; required for learning, growing, and moving closer to God.
These six months have been completely different from anything I have experienced in the last 5-6 years. The major difference is, this is the longest amount of time I have lived in a single place. I have grown accustomed to the constant moving – whether that was every three months or so during my time spent at Cedarville University and camp, or the monthly move I made during the World Race. There was a constant change in scenery, and I grew to enjoy that lifestyle, and the growth I readily saw.
As many of you know, upon returning home I took a job at a local coffee shop. I absolutely love it – I could fill a whole other blog about that, and maybe I will. But going to the same place and doing the same things day after day caused me to feel restless…after about a month. That was probably the most difficult time of my six months home. Once I got over my fleshly restlessness to move, to throw myself into somewhere completely new, I was able to see the endurance God was building. An endurance to not allow my days to just string together. I realized I didn’t want to hit the sixth month mark and not be able to distinguish the movement of God through my life, even amidst the “same ol’ things.” I came to the realization that many times it is much easier to distinguish the hand of God when life is constantly being shook up. No, the true test of our spiritual eyes comes in the consistency of routine and “normal” life; for when we can spot the hand of God during those times is when we have truly learned to distinguish His presence.
I think I write about waiting almost too much – and generally it is about how much I dislike the term. Something clicked with me today, though. I have been reading through Romans again, and as I read chapter 8, verses 24 and 25 popped out at me.
“…Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
And that’s when it hit me. I will never stop waiting through my whole life on this Earth. No matter where I go, what I do, or who I am with, I will always be waiting. I am waiting on that day when my Savior comes and I get to spend eternity glorifying Him alongside my brothers and sisters. I am waiting on that day when my hope becomes sight, and I no longer am waiting for what I most desire! And so I have learned to wait in patience, for that is what hope produces.
Many of you have probably seen this quote from C.S. Lewis, but he paints it so eloquently when he says, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world,” (Mere Christianity).
So I invite you to wait with me – wait in patience and joy for our coming Savior and the glory that will accompany Him!
