“I say to myself,
‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.”
As a licensed physical therapist, I know the four stages of ice therapy forward and backward. First, there is the cold stage. The satisfying cold sensation soon
turns to tingling and burning in the next stage. The third stage is the aching
stage. Finally, the fourth and most important stage is numbness. Presto! Your
pain is gone.
Recently, God asked me to wait on Him for something I had been pursuing for
a long time. I agreed, keeping His Word in my heart. “I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for Him.” As I spent countless
months in that season of waiting, the Lord showed me that like my patients who
experience those four stages of cold therapy, I would experience similar phases
in this God-designed “waiting therapy.”
The Cold Stage: When a person in pain first
places the ice pack on the offending body part, there is a moment of relief.
The cold energizes the patient and leaves them feeling good. That’s what happened
18 months ago, when a kind of pain emerged in my life. The offender was my
part-time job. The number of hours I worked for this remote role – one that
allowed me flexibility and the opportunity to be home with my young children – started
to dwindle as the client pool dried up. What had been 50 billable hours per
month plummeted to an average of two. Money started to get tight. Yet from the
start of the slide, I had a sense that it was God closing this door for me, not
some trial or tribulation propelled by any worldly cause. So, I had a certain
peace about it. Then, when God provided a glimpse of what was in my future, I
became energized. As I waited for God to show me more and lead me onto my new
path, I was able to remain eager and feeling good. There was no anxiety – only an energized waiting. I was in
Stage One of waiting therapy.
The Tingling and Burning Stage: Several
months into that excitement, I have to admit, I started to get edgy. My trust
in God never waned, but my ability to understand His timing started to
diminish. Just as with cold therapy, that initial pleasant feeling of energized
waiting became less … nice. This was uncomfortable
waiting. Just as my patients look at me with a question in their eyes as
the tingling and burning increase, I looked up to God with a question of my
own. This isn’t as fun, anymore, God. Why so much waiting? I had become nervously
patient. I found myself in Stage Two of waiting therapy.
The Aching Stage: This is gut-check time. During cold therapy,
patients tend to reach toward their ice packs in anticipation of removing them.
The aching seems unbearable – sometimes worse than the original pain. I always
stop them. This is not because I am some mean-spirited physical therapist
intent on proving the adage, “no pain, no gain.” It is because I know what is
to come.
The wait in my life became agonizing, as well, as I entered a time of painful waiting. For more than a year, my
spending had far outweighed my earning, and my bank account was showing signs
of strain. My nervous patience turned into a frustrated and somewhat defeated IMpatience.
I looked up to God as fear began to scratch at the outer walls of my heart. Had
I missed something?
Then I did something for God that I have always urged my patients to do for
me. I trusted God because I realized His timing and His plan were trustworthy.
I was reminded that this is the stage that made Job famous. It is the stage about
which Jesus and His disciples teach us throughout the New Testament. In 1
Peter 1:6-7, the apostle Peter praises the Lord and reminds God’s people of
the living hope found in Jesus:“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for
a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These
have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold … may be proved
genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is
revealed.” I looked at all the past
moments stamped with God’s faithfulness, and I let go of the fear creeping into
my heart. I wanted my faith proved
genuine, so I said to God: Your will be
done. I do trust You.
As it turns
out, God was developing my perseverance during my waiting therapy. I could have
reached out and attempted to move plans forward on my own. Just as my patients
have the choice to remove that ice pack too early, I could have tried to make
things happen independent of God and His timing. As the weeks went by, I
instead chose to follow Scripture and keep waiting – leaving
the aching and longing in place rather than going forward alone. As it turns
out, I finally reached that sweet stage where all the pain disappears, where
God makes things good as He unfolds His curiously awesome design. My wait ended
with something spectacular – a dream job – one I could never have found or
created on my own.
Are you
waiting on the Lord? No matter what stage you are in, take heart. The wait is
worth it!
Wait for
the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
I wait for
the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.
Prayer –Thank You, Lord, for our waiting therapy. It builds character
and perseverance … and trust in You. After all, trust is our primary task, and
Your timing and plans have never ceased to amaze. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
© 2013 As A Clay Jar. All rights reserved.
© 2013 As A Clay Jar. All rights reserved.
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