Funny how answers show up, sometimes as assurances or directions rather than “yes” or “no”. Being a rather yes/no kinda gal, I’m not actually in favor of those kind of answers but will take what I can get sometimes.
We have been in an interesting season of life littered with richness, waiting, puzzles, and activity. We know there are some questions looming which we’d really like to have answered. Definitively. So far, nothing is clear. Not even how best to approach getting to answers.
One of the books I’m currently digesting, i.e., reading veeeerrrrryyy slowly, is Emily Freeman’s The Next Right Thing. I don’t have a regular reading schedule for it. Rather it hangs out on my nightstand with a couple of other books that I’m wandering through as prompted.
And today: Boom. An intersection between a prompt to read and looming questions. In a chapter on clarity, Emily quotes Marie Forleo pointing out that clarity cannot be rushed. It especially cannot be rushed when you are also seeking common accord with your spouse.
She also notes in a blinding but necessary flash of the obvious that “the future always comes”. Her guidance is to release two things that I love dearly: my timeline and my expectation of certainty. In a world where rushing busyness and intolerance of failure are the norms, releasing, waiting, taking one single step forward while waiting for God to reveal the next right thing, is difficult.
Early in my twenties, I asked God to help me be patient. I asked a lot. And now almost forty years later, I’m still asking God to help me be patient. His timing is perfect. I can trust His path for my life even if I don’t see the entire picture.
As my husband often says, it’s about the journey.
Just Sayin' 