I'm not good at leaving things until the last minute. I usually have all my Christmas shopping done by October. But here I sit, with my study one week a way, doing nothing...
It's what my dad hated about the military. He called it "hurry up and wait". You get all stirred up, all excited, and when you're ready to get to it, you are put on hold and all that momentum that has built up comes to a slamming halt. Hurry up and wait. That's where I'm at right now and I don't like it one bit.
The study I'm teaching on Powerful Prayer was scheduled to start today. It was decided in June, scheduled in November and written in December. That was the preparation - the "hurry up" part. Now that it's time to teach it, I am having to wait. The church leadership didn't have time to review it with the holidays. They asked me to push it back a week. I pitched my own little temper tantrum over it last week but finally came to see that it is in God's timing, not mine, and it actually suited some of the participant's schedules better to start on the 15th. So I resigned myself to the new date. The problem I am having now is that the class starts in one week, the curriculum is still not reviewed, and I have to duplicate and make the study guides yet around my 9-5 work schedule. It's all going to happen right at the last minute, which is so stressful that I purposely avoid doing that in every area of my life.
As I was complaining to God about how unfair this was this morning, He gave me James 1:4. "Let patience have her perfect work, that you may become perfect and entire, wanting nothing." He showed me that if it's His will, the class will get taught regardless the date, and that everything will get done that needs done prior to starting. The purpose of the "wait" is to make me what I need to be in order to teach it. How can one teach without patience? So, I'm taking a deep breath, and willing myself to calm down and trust God to take care of all this in His perfect timing.
"Hurry up and wait" is anxious waiting. It's "come on, come on", it's straining at the leash, waiting for the starting gun. Waiting on the Lord is peaceful waiting. It's knowing it will happen in God's timing and not fretting over the how and when. It's trusting that everything will fall in place with time to spare when He gives the green light. I'm choosing peace over anxiety. I choose to no longer "hurry up and wait".
It's what my dad hated about the military. He called it "hurry up and wait". You get all stirred up, all excited, and when you're ready to get to it, you are put on hold and all that momentum that has built up comes to a slamming halt. Hurry up and wait. That's where I'm at right now and I don't like it one bit.
The study I'm teaching on Powerful Prayer was scheduled to start today. It was decided in June, scheduled in November and written in December. That was the preparation - the "hurry up" part. Now that it's time to teach it, I am having to wait. The church leadership didn't have time to review it with the holidays. They asked me to push it back a week. I pitched my own little temper tantrum over it last week but finally came to see that it is in God's timing, not mine, and it actually suited some of the participant's schedules better to start on the 15th. So I resigned myself to the new date. The problem I am having now is that the class starts in one week, the curriculum is still not reviewed, and I have to duplicate and make the study guides yet around my 9-5 work schedule. It's all going to happen right at the last minute, which is so stressful that I purposely avoid doing that in every area of my life.
As I was complaining to God about how unfair this was this morning, He gave me James 1:4. "Let patience have her perfect work, that you may become perfect and entire, wanting nothing." He showed me that if it's His will, the class will get taught regardless the date, and that everything will get done that needs done prior to starting. The purpose of the "wait" is to make me what I need to be in order to teach it. How can one teach without patience? So, I'm taking a deep breath, and willing myself to calm down and trust God to take care of all this in His perfect timing.
"Hurry up and wait" is anxious waiting. It's "come on, come on", it's straining at the leash, waiting for the starting gun. Waiting on the Lord is peaceful waiting. It's knowing it will happen in God's timing and not fretting over the how and when. It's trusting that everything will fall in place with time to spare when He gives the green light. I'm choosing peace over anxiety. I choose to no longer "hurry up and wait".
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