Meaning of Waiting: Season of Readiness
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Readiness
noun
the state of being fully prepared for something.
The waiting is the preparing.
The season we are in today, prepares us for the now and what is to come. The delay could be preparing us for something more. The not yet could be protecting us for greater.
I had a teacher who would remind me that you do not prepare for a game that you have already played.
You do not train for a soccer game, after the game. You do not practice for the match after it is played. You practice before the match. When I was training to run the 400m race, I would run 800m in practice. I had to do more work in the waiting and in the anticipation for Meet Day. We did not just wait for the meet day, we trained for Meet Day. And so today, I encourage us all to prepare for the day. Start the day ready and willing. There are small habits that can lay the foundation for how we build.
If we do all that we can today, we will be walking deeper in our purpose. As I focus on the purpose of today, the next steps of tomorrow are secondary. The joy of life is to find the meaningfulness of the present. May we be people of walking in purpose.
The waiting season may be the training season. The waiting may be the learning season or the delivering season.
Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. | 1 Corinthians 9:25+26 |
As we train, I believe the adventure begins to see what He is refining and teaching in the hardest pruning moments that our spiritual bodies need. There is a calling higher + deeper for each of us to focus and to train for the eternal race.
Wherever we are heading, it is about who we are following and who we are being. How we show up is the most important lesson to learn. We may show up delayed, we may show up somewhere different. It is who we are when we get there that sets us apart. When we know who we are following and who He has called us to be, where we are seems to lose its rush. He is not in a hurry. There is freedom in His timing.
Keep the race. Keep the pace. Walk when it is time to walk with the Lord and be prepared to run with the Lord when it is time. Walk and you shall not faint for He is within you!
But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. | Isaiah 40:31 |
This is about settling our heart and being ready to take the steps. I grew up hearing,
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
I realize the heart behind planning is what differentiates setting goals from worry. Plan to set the goals, and keep the feet. Have a heart invested in what can be done now. It is what we do in the now that allows us to keep the pace for the race set out.
For worry does not add a day to your life, but actually causes you to miss one. Worry causes us to lose the moments of today thinking of the expectancy or anxieties of tomorrow.
In the Questioning
How much in life do we wait for our next step? How much do we think that the next season will be better or change things? And when we arrive, will it be sufficient, will it be enough?
Having a mentality of learning may shift our aches into blessing and turn disappointments into understanding. I want to remind us - No season is wasted, no period is useless. This requires a hope that there is something coming out of the mundane, the desert and even the deep valley. He is a God of intention.
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you | Psalm 32:8 |
When we shift the perspective on the Creator, It will look different than what we could have imagine or think when He calls us to more. It is better. It may call our agenda to pause, the time frame to delay, and our heart to slow down. The fleshly desires leading to impatience and discontentment will not be gratified by walking In step with the Spirit.
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. | Galatians 5:16 |
He wants our hearts steadfast and willing.
He asked Simon Peter to cast his own nets to the side of the same boat he had been already fishing on the night before. And in His timing, He multiplied the catch for Simon Peter. It was more than what he could have ever imagined. And this was the beginning of Jesus calling Peter into his purpose in becoming a fisher for men. He is working in the preparing of our hearts’ for more. He is in the business of multiplying what is necessary in our lives'. And I ask myself today, is God actually waiting for me to let down my nets?
Your prayers are heard, that are not forgotten
He hears you; He sees you. He is here.
I am seeing this is the question He is calling me into,
What is it that He wants me to know in this season?
How to live right where our feet are
1. Offer your steps, offer your footing. Be present with your feet today.
2. Ask God to teach ALL that He wants you to know. What is 1 thing you are leaning about today?
3. Find the meaningfulness in the waiting. What are 2 things you can practice patience in?
4. Keep showing up well. What are 2 ways you can best show up for work tomorrow?
5. Find gratitude in what you can, in the now. Write down 5 things you are grateful for in this season.
With lots of love,
Mak