Anticipating Life's Ice-cream

It is hard to wait. 

It's really hard to wait.

It's hard to wait for the things we want...

...and it's hard to wait for the things we think we don't want.

It's hard to sit back, un-clench our fists and lift our eyes to the Lord.

"Lord Jesus, I will wait for You. I won't take this into my hands. I will trust You."

In theory? Yes. It's easy. It's just a little giving-up, right?

 In practice, waiting is one of the hardest things we are called as Christians to do. We think we know what's right--how many many times have I been guilty of this! We think we've let go. We really do. And yet when God reaches to take away that thing we want, we hold tight.

 "No, Lord! That wasn't in the plan! I thought You were telling me to go in this direction! All roads were leading toward it! What do You mean that's not the way we're going?!"

We fuss and cry and clench our fists and all the while God is only waiting for us to let go of our grubby plans so that He may give us something infinitely better. I'm not saying it will always be easy to accept God's will and God's plan. But I do have this confidence: That He who has begun a good work in you is able to complete it.

He doesn't take things away and leave us hanging, empty-handed, empty-hearted.

 He does not delight in stripping us of the good things. 

He delights in gifting us with the best things.

And it is this very paradox that hangs us up and ties our soul in knots and causes angst and pain and worry. Because we have the minds of silly little children. We see our Father taking our lollipop away and don't see the ice-cream sundae He's holding behind his back. Our lollipop is going away and that's all we know [and care, frankly] about the matter.

We can't understand the ways God works until we are with Him in Heaven at the end of our earthly journey. We'll see then (and often before then) why He took certain things away, and how the things He then bestowed were so much better.

So let's all anticipate the ice-cream and let go of Life's lollipops. He promises He's got better things in store for those who wait upon Him.