The hardest part of progress in work or life is staying in place. When we’ve agreed to move forward, it can be excruciating to wait for the next step. We might be part of a group that has been tasked to change or expand, but we are parked in neutral. Sometimes we sense an open door ahead, but it is not yet in view. There seems nothing we can do to hasten an advance. So we sit.
We fidget.
We wait.
We pray.
Finally we stop contending or striving and become resigned. We rest.
Eventually the suffering of waiting is over. The group finds the catalyst that propels it forward. The task takes a direction we did not anticipate. The door creaks open (or a companion flings it wide) and we walk through.
The new vista may look nothing like what we had expected. Then the preparation of waiting and suffering makes sense. We have been prepared for a new assignment or quest by abandoning our own ideas and plans. Like Moses after 40 years of herding sheep in the desert, we have become willing to go to or do what we would have refused.
Ask: could this suffering be preparation for a wonderful future of unexpected opportunity?
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*May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God. Finally, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. Galatians 6:14-18 NIV
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