This is not waiting

This is not waiting

I am finding life very amusing at the moment, I have lost count of the number of times I have done my make up whilst sat in my car, or the amount of times I have changed my clothes hiding behind my steering wheel as creatively as I can. With the drive home now so far I have claimed two home away from homes! The countless times I finish work early before evening small group or events in Bristol, I gate crash ADH or Mullers community houses for food and wifi (and of course the great company.) Most nights I arrive home usually later than 11 and leave again at 6 in the morning, my car is currently my best friend having heard all my outward conversations, made up songs and thoughts.

In truth it feels like a strange waiting period. Just waiting to move to Bristol and waiting to start university, but I recently read an article that deeply challenged this thought in me.

So often in life we are looking forward, dreaming or hoping for that new chapter, a baby, a new job, a new house, a relationship, marriage, etc. Yet I am challenged to think that although there are things that are coming, or things I am hoping for, does this really mean I am in a ‘state of waiting?’

So a few thoughts that have excited me again for this crazy yet purpose filled time. God has not forgotten me, and he’s not forgotten you. He hasn't made a mistake in my timeline and hasn’t in yours, he doesn't make mistakes, like in blessing me with a Bristol job but forgetting I currently live in weston, and he hasn’t made a mistake with you. He hasn’t left us to focus on someone else. My God is powerful and capable of knowing. He sees every part and plan wrapped up in my life and in yours.

So I am done telling people that I am waiting to move to Bristol, because right now I am living a wonderfully exciting life with my best friend as we plan for her wedding. I am done telling people that I am waiting for University, because this gap isn't waiting, its living, working with a great bunch of people, laughing continually and making great coffee. I am going to stop wishing my life away, but embrace the now. God’s best for me right now is this because I know he loves me.

What conversations can we be having in the now to show people the love of Jesus. Who can we be praying and investing our lives in at this period of time. What good can we be doing during this season that we couldn’t be doing if life looked different?

I am not sure why I am continually shocked when life is flying by around me, when i look back at the weeks, months and years and wonder where the time has gone. I don’t know why I feel surprised when really all i do is look forward to the next thing, the next day the next week and year. ‘I can’t wait till I can live in Bristol' ‘I can’t wait to start university’ ‘I can’t wait to meet someone special’ because those moments come and then its onto the next thing. Excitement is a wonderful emotion but I am thinking much bigger. Yes I can look forward to the next phases of life but am I really taking in enough of the life around me right now?

So I am putting it to the test and in each moment I long to be at Uni, or think about moving to Bristol, or dwell on thinking about events in the next week, or feel that I am waiting to meet someone, I am choosing to remind myself that this period of life is not me ‘waiting.’ So friends I encourage you to join me, this is exactly where God wants us, perfectly in this place, in these moments. God isn't late. So to the person desperate for a new career, or for the person longing for marriage, or the person desperate for a baby, the chance to travel, the opportunity to study, for the right time to move or even the people waiting to fall in love, what ever we hope is coming, God is already on it, and right now we are not waiting for life to begin. This is life right now and we are living it!