I’m continuing some reflection on the waiting room of life. You can read the other post here.
Someone gave me a compliment yesterday. They told me that they saw real growth in me recently.
For me, my greatest growth has come because I gave myself over to a process of transformation where I have allowed someone, a mentor, to speak into my life in ways I have never been open to before. Here is why it is relevant to this topic: I expected to get great insight from this mentor whereby I could immediately implement and CHANGE. What I found was conversation that did not immediately produce fruit but rather provided an environment where I could wrestle through some of my challenges. And this wrestling match took time.
It’s what a friend calls to “sit with it.” It’s the task of living with a principle, insight or idea for some time until the truth of it is revealed in your life. It’s the experience we have when we re-read a passage of Scripture and suddenly the truth of it hits you in ways it never hit you before. The reason the truth hit you this time in a fresh way is because you lived life and had experiences that now read that passage through the lens of those experiences.
The clincher in this “sitting with it” is that you can’t make it happen. It does not happen instantly. It only happens with TIME and you can never predict when it will happen. It’s why some theologians say we “act our way into belief.” By living and acting as if we believe something, over time you realize you do actually believe it and the doubts and arguments don’t have as much weight with you anymore.
The waiting room of life is for “sitting with it.” Allowing God to work through a process where you ruminate on a truth or principle until the clarity of that truth blinds you.
Tomorrow I want to share one more reflection on why waiting may not be the worst thing for us.
