The days on the calendar keep flying by and still no word for us.
Ever been in that situation? You know the ones. The potentially life-changing situations that come with massive delays that you weren't planning on, the endless red tape and the baffling silences from uncooperative humans and/or and a heaven that seems to be made of stainless steel, unresponsive and unpenetrable.
Daily, we've been questioning God and each other. Have we missed something? Were we traveling down a road and happened to look the wrong way just as we approached the "Turn right HERE! Right NOW!" sign?
No, dear readers. God doesn't work that way.
We woke up every day for weeks, saying to ourselves to one another, "Surely this is the day that we'll get the news. God wouldn't keep delaying it like this. So and so said they'd get back to us soon. This is definitely qualifies as soon."
And yet no answer. Still.
That's when I realized we were living in expectation. And it was hurting us. We need to expect God to keep His promises, surely, but in His time frame. Not ours.
{Gulp} Oh, dear.
My time frame would have had this situation dealt with and done a looonnnggg time ago. But He hasn't done that.
But we hope. There's a difference, you know. If you wake up in the morning with hope and not expectation, you won't be disappointed at the end of the day if it hasn't happened. And you'll probably be a whole lot more gracious about it.
Of course, we want it to happen. There's never a question of that. But when we got out of that mindset of expectation and rather put on hope, there was a huge shift in the way we approached this situation. We still have to work at being patient and not jumping to conclusions one way or the other, of course. However, with a mindset of hope, we've relaxed and become more flexible.
Now when "they" say that they'll call us by Friday and it's the next Wednesday already, it's not devastating. We know that we're living in God's time frame and not anyone else's, so we're good.
Still waiting, but good. And hopeful.
Say it with me now,"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
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