As most of the country transitions from spring to summer, I find myself at a crossroad of sorts. Here in the south, anxious gardeners such as myself anticipated the arrival of spring with visions of potential plantings and tidy gardens that promised a bounty of blooms. Frosty temperatures are given a not so found farewell so that we of the gardening variety can once again “play in the dirt.” Flowers and veggies are tenderly planted, the arrival of dependable blooms such as dogwoods and roses anticipated to brighten not only the landscape but our dispositions as well. The cold damp gray of winter thankfully leaves us as our moods hopefully reflect sunnier skies.
However, after all the annuals had been set in pots, hydrangea blooms finally dotting my landscape and tomato plants safely in the ground with no threat of freeze, I found there was nothing I had to actually “do” to make my garden grow. Everything I could do for my garden had been done. All that was left was to sit back, enjoy the scenery and wait. With the planting done and the rains come, I was powerless to do anything else that would actually hasten the arrival of homegrown veggies to my plate.
I then realized my garden mirrored efforts taken toward my professional endeavors. The proper contacts have been made, the work done and now I can only wait for my desired result to come to pass. Oftentimes, we are SO busy in our daily lives that we forget how to be still! We often run around with obligations and responsibilities as well as trying to bring our dreams to fruition that when the time comes that we can do nothing more but “wait on the Lord,” we often find ourselves lost.
Our society is ever pushing faster tech, instantaneous information and a multitude of data is available to us at any given time. However, God’s timing has not seemed to followed that trend, at least in my own circumstances, and I must wait patiently and with a good attitude for God to do what I can not. Just as I can plant my flowers, I can’t really make them grow. Only God has the power to do that. When we have done all that we can to meet a particular goal, sometimes all we have left is to wait.
I used to pray for patience. I don’t do that anymore as I feel God now gives me PLENTY of opportunities to practice that particular virtue. I have had to rediscover how to wait on the Lord just as the Israelites had to again and again rely on the Lord’s provision and miracles as they journeyed forty years to their Promised Land. I have had to re-learn how to sit and be still in one area of my life as I continue to work diligently on other areas. It has finally set in my sometimes thick skull that being busy doesn’t necessarily equate with being productive.
My tomatoes will grow in the coming months just as other areas of my life await their proper season to bear great fruit. Where once I would have fretted over the time it takes for their maturity, I have wisdom enough to finally sit back with a glass of lemonade on a warm day and allow the Son/Sun to shine on me as I enjoy the scenery… while I wait.
“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord,” Psalm 27:14
Is there anything in your life you should be waiting on instead of working on?
B Is for Blessed! 