It’s happening now!

I don’t think that I have ever admitted to you that I am impatient.

Yes, behind this cool demeanor, this unflinching persona, this stoic expression is a flurry of uncut, unadulterated, raw impatience.  This is not something that I am just learning about myself.  Oh. No.  I’ve always known; however, it was way too much for me to admit to myself.  I’m not proud of myself, because I know better.  I’m a child of God.  I know that sometimes, He may not come when I want Him.  I sing out to my children almost every other day that, “patience is a fruit of the spirit.”

And yet…

I still brood silently, waiting for God to tell me something.  My digestive system completely shuts down (or ramps up) based on how quickly I can hear from Him.  I try to force His hand by fasting and quicken his response by praying unceasingly.  I am not still.  I cannot wait.  Often I am not of good courage.  I am impatient.

A couple weeks ago, I was on a panel for the women’s ministry at my church.  The theme was, “Real Talk for Christian Women.”  Pah!  Yeah, right, I thought.  People don’t want to be real, I thought.  But after hearing a certain, pointed, deliberate question, I realized, I was the one who wasn’t being real with myself.  The question was, “How can I work on my patience?  I mean, I know God has promises for me, but when are those promises going to happen?”  Somehow, the floor was given over to me.  And I hadn’t an answer to address the question.  But then, something came to me that ministered to both me and the young lady asking the question.

“It’s happening now,” I said emphatically, even though I had no idea where I was going with it.  So, I repeated the phrase, trusting that God would flesh it out for me, I mean, for her.  And He did.

The thing is that when we are waiting on God to make something happen, we don’t realize that He is making something happen.  He’s making something happen all the time, but we just can’t see it.  Being blind to the happenings makes us nervous, and so we assume, because we are impatient, that nothing is happening at all.  But it is.  It has to be.  God is looking out for us, and there are a lot of chess pieces that have to be moved to get us into the perfect position for what needs to happen.

I must admit, sometimes we mess up the happenings.  At least I do.  I’ve jumped off my square more times than I can count.  What I’m realizing daily is that my moving from my square can slow things down.  God has to make even more moves to get things in their proper places so I can be where the happenings are taking place.  If I get in the way of what God is trying to make happen, then I have to wait even longer.

The take away here is really simple.  When you get to a point where your patience is wearing thin, and your wait seems the longest wait in the world.  When you feel as if you are stagnated in your situation and there is nothing happening.  Remember, it’s happening for your right now.  As a matter of fact, if you had eyes to see how fast it was happening, you couldn’t see how fast it’s happening (Did you get that?).

The truth of the matter is, what’s happening, is really waiting for you and your slow self to catch up and understand that the things that need to be happening are waiting for you to get in the place God designated for you.

How does one do that, you ask?  Well one way is to be sure your ear is tuned in to God.  That means you need to be in constant communication through prayer, meditation, and reading of God’s word.  Next, pay attention to what’s going on around and move when you see God opening up a path toward success.  Lastly, remember that God is making things happen just for you, even when you can’t see it.  We can’t see it because it’s probably too much for our finite minds to comprehend.   Just trust that God is always making it happen, and it’s happening right now.