Wait and Seek

            After this week, I will be completely done with my first year of college. I would say that it went by fast (that seems to be what most people say), but if I did I would be lying. For me, it seemed to actually go by dreadfully slow. I went through a lot of personal struggles this year, and it seemed like some days just dragged on forever.

            I think the main reason why it seemed so long was because I was waiting for God to give me answers, and there were times when it felt like He never did. Honestly, I was angry at God for some time because He wasn’t responding. The more I waited for Him, the more impatient I grew. But while I was caught up being impatient with God, God was actually patiently waiting for me.

            I was so frustrated that God was taking so long to get back to me, but the whole time He was just waiting for me. He had given me what I needed, but I was the one that was taking a long time to realize it. It wasn’t that God wasn’t responding to me, it was me taking a long time to actually follow up with what God had told me. And when I did, within just a few weeks the struggles in my life started to fade as God’s goodness started to become clear.

            Now imagine that you’re planning to meet a friend for coffee at one of the four Starbucks coffee shops in your town. But you don’t clarify which one, and you end up sitting at the wrong shop thinking that your friend is late. Meanwhile your friend is sitting at a different coffee shop thinking that you’re late…. In this picture, I was the friend that went to the wrong coffee shop, and the whole time God was waiting for me somewhere else.

            You always hear people say to just be patient and wait for God, but I think sometimes as Christians we wait too much. If you’re waiting for God in the wrong place, you could be waiting there for a long time. So instead of waiting, you have to get to the place where God wants you. When you find Him, you’ll realize that He has probably been waiting on you for quite some time. We have to seek God, and not just sit back and wait for him to do all the work. The beautiful thing is that love is patient, and God is love. No matter how long it takes you, God will patiently be waiting with open arms as soon as you stop waiting for him, and instead you start moving towards him.

“The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.” –Lamentations 3:25

If you want to experience God’s goodness, it is so important to realize that waiting on God involves seeking God. If the answers aren’t coming when you want them, maybe you’re waiting for God at the wrong Starbucks.