freedom to wait in HOPE

This morning I went to the mom's group at our church. It is always such a blessing to be with other moms, enjoy a delicious breakfast, to hear from the Lord and discuss the different ways God is at work in our lives. Ever since Kathy gave a message this morning about waiting, it has been on my mind so I thought I'd share a little bit about it.

She spoke about how we live in the tension of the "now and not yet". We are living in-between the time where Christ has come and he will come again. This is something I have really been thinking about a lot lately and wrestling with. With the news of people passing away, marriages suffering and all of the brokenness we are surrounded with, we have hope in Christ.

Kathy also spoke about loss and change in life and how we can be in it with each other. She listed 6 different types of loss that were interesting to consider: material loss, relationship loss, functional loss, role loss, systemic loss, and intra-psychic loss. One loss that came to my mind is the loss of my job. Not that I really lost it, I just transitioned from my job at our church to being a full time mommy. It has definitely been an adjustment to go from being around a number of people each day, being part of something bigger, seeing results from things I was doing, and receiving affirmations to being with my sweet little girl, not seeing too many results [except for when I clean the house or do the laundry :)] and not receiving as much affirmation. I LOVE what I am doing and I wouldn't trade it for the world, but there is a loss there.

She also shared a bit about how we can be in waiting with other people as they are going through a loss or a dark time in their life. It's so easy to want to fix things or come up with a solution when, really, a lot of times there is nothing we can do but pray, support, and encourage. There are so many things that we don't understand and probably never will. Thankfully God is here with us and will never leave us. When we are in his presence we can rest in those truths.

Are you going through a time of waiting? What are your resistances to this process? How are you sitting with somebody while they wait? Are you trying to fix their problems or joining with them in their waiting?