{.the waiting game.}

I'm pretty sure everyone has experienced playing the waiting game once, or twice, or a hundred times in their lifetime. I can attest that I am currently in the middle of the game. Every day I wake up and wait...and then wait some more. I've convinced myself that waiting is all I can do right now. There are tons of verses in the Bible that tell me I should wait patiently..."wait patiently for Him to act," "those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength," "if we look forward to something we don't yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently." I could give you a page FULL of more verses on waiting. Let me be clear here...there is nothing wrong with waiting. God allows things to happen at different times for everyone and He wants us to patiently wait for Him. The problem I want to talk about is when the waiting game becomes a wasted game.

I've been waiting for so long. And to be honest, I'm not even sure what I'm waiting for. Something amazing to happen I guess.The other day I was hit with the realization that all this time I've been spending waiting has been time wasted. I'm starting to figure out that if I just keep waiting and ONLY waiting, I will probably be waiting for the rest of my life! Being patient is good, but waiting while sitting on my butt is foolish. I keep telling myself that I have to wait for that "something" to happen before I could possibly go out and actually do a number of things.

Sometimes I find myself waiting to have someone to love. Well guess what? All this time I've been waiting for just that thing, there have been MILLIONS of people in this world who need love. I now ask myself why I've wasted so much time holding all my love inside.

Sometimes I find myself waiting to read a good book until I have the house to myself so I will have peace and quiet. All this time I've been waiting, there are about 50 books on my shelf waiting to be read. Why didn't I just put in some headphones and read?

Sometimes I find myself waiting to talk to a friend until I hear from them first. All this time I've been waiting, maybe they feel the same way. Why don't I just pick up my phone and try to reach them?

I guess what I'm trying to say is WHY do we spend so much time waiting for things that are so within our reach? Maybe they don't happen as easily and convenient as we would like. Maybe they don't happen the way we would like. But can you imagine how many amazing things are right at our fingertips if we would just stop waiting for them to be handed to us and we would put forth a little effort?

I think I'm ready to stop waiting and take advantage of this time I've been given. It's time to make a change, to make a difference, to make the amazing possible. Time to let God write my story...and while I'm waiting to find out what the next chapter is, I'm going to take advantage of the time He has given me in this little waiting game. Time to grow, time to learn, time to seek Him and find exactly who I am in Him, time definitely not to be wasted.

Here is a song by Mandisa that really goes with what I just said. Check it out. =)

Now take my advice..take that first step and go make the amazing possible!