How To Wait In Season

I shared what it means to wait in season, and I told you how I waited for a new phone. But that wasn’t the first thing I waited for this year. After writing that post, suddenly I’m reminded of these short-term waiting periods that happened so far this year. I’m not talking about waiting for an email or waiting at the doctor’s office. The first thing I waited for this year was my driver’s license.

I didn’t have a driver’s license for a month. I renewed it online, but because I have diabetes, it was flagged. My doctor had to fill out a medical form for the DMV, and all the back and forth between the government, the hospital, and me took a long time and tested my patience. In the movie Evan Almighty, Morgan Freeman played God and he said something I’d never forget.

“If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient?”

Morgan Freeman “Evan Almighty”

I didn’t pray for patience, but the beginning of this year sure felt like opportunities for patience. And waiting. And praying. There were three possible outcomes I could face with the DMV depending on the medical form they receive from my doctor. First, they will simply renew my license. Second, they would need to conduct a phone or in-person interview with me. Third, I would need to retake my driver’s test (not the paper one, the actual driving one). Because low blood sugar in diabetics could cause us to pass out, my doctor recommended I retake the driver’s test (there’s an actual box with this question in it). When I say I begged God to intervene is an understatement. “Just an interview, God,” was my prayer. His answer was no. He gave me option one instead. DMV sent a letter that my renewed license was on the way and there was no need for further contact!

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! My One Word this year is Radiate and it’s from Psalm 37. Here’s part of it.

“Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. Be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for him to act.”

Psalm 37:5-7b

This is small, but it matters to me: my diabetes is well controlled. I’m in contact with my doctors and I do what I have to do. My A1C has recently gone down. When my doctor filled out the DMV form and ticked off that box that said I should retake my driver’s test, I felt a little incensed. I’m doing well, and they have my medical records to prove that. I think it’s protocol for the doctor to recommend a retake of the driver’s test, but I felt like my innocence wasn’t radiating. It felt like I was doing my best, but my best wasn’t good enough. I was tempted to confront my doctor, to be honest. But I didn’t. I waited instead. I thought I was waiting for the DMV’s verdict, but now I see I was waiting for God to act on my behalf. And He did! And my innocence radiated like the dawn.

Waiting in season means doing the work in the season you’re in, while waiting for the season of God’s blessings. How do we do it? How do we do the work in the season we’re in?

How do we wait in season?

Recognize the change of season.

While I know that many people don’t have cars, driver’s licenses, or even the knowledge of operating a vehicle, it’s not the case for me. I’ve been driving since I was 15 years old, which is when I received my permit and actually started learning. My best friend pointed out how big of a change that was, even if it was only temporary. She was right and I didn’t even realize it. And like all big changes, it threw me for a loop. To wait in season, we need to recognize the change.

While waiting sounds like living in the status quo, there’s change in waiting. There’s change in the beginning, like when I suddenly couldn’t drive (legally). Your circumstances change when you have to wait. There’s also change in the middle. How you go about your day changes. You have to adjust to a new normal. You’ll need new approaches to everyday situations. These changes might seem like small annoyances or disruptions, but they can add up. They can throw you for a loop.

The Bible recognizes and reminds us that there is a time and season for everything (Ecclesiastes 3:1). We need to do the same. We need to recognize the change in season. A season of waiting is normal. It’s a fact of life. So is the promise of God to be with us.

“This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Joshua 1:9 (NLT)

It’s easy to feel alone and forgotten in a waiting room. I once had to wait four hours at the doctor’s waiting room feeling like death, only to be seen for a few minutes and told that I had to go to the emergency room right away because I was, in fact, in the middle of an emergency and could die if left untreated (I was admitted the same day for acute kidney infection and stayed in the hospital for eight days). It’s hard to be strong and courageous in the waiting, but we have hope in God. He is with us in every season, in every change, and in every wait.

Be still before God.

To be still in God’s presence means to let go, to stop striving and struggling, and to give up control of our present circumstances and its outcomes.

“Be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for him to act.”

Psalm 37:7 (ab, NLT)

I wanted to control what my doctor wrote in the DMV form. I didn’t want that recommendation to retake the driver’s test. The temptation to find a way to change that report was real. Do I confront my doctor? Complain to the hospital? Raise up a stink until I get my way? I’m actually the type of person who doesn’t like confrontation, but I was in a panic. It wasn’t fair. I didn’t deserve this. My diagnosis was not my fault (it’s my ancestors!). All these thoughts raged in my head, until I was reminded to be still. To be still before God means to take a deep, calming breath, open our clenched fists, and give God room to act in our best interests.

When we’re waiting in season, we might have moments of panic. Things aren’t fair. We don’t deserve this. It’s not our fault. And we’d want to do something to defend ourselves, to get to our goals faster, or to make sure the outcome is to our liking. It’s like we’re taking up our own banners and swords, and charging to battle all on our own. But we are not alone, and the God who is with us is so much better at fighting for us than we ever could. He’s not going to force us to sit down and wait. He’s not tying us to a chair so we would be still. We’d have to do that ourselves. We need to give God room to act on our behalf and in our best interests. And trust that He will. Because He will.

Fully obey God.

God’s blessings come in season (Deuteronomy 28:12). That Bible verse is part of a bigger chunk of Scripture talking about God’s blessings. It starts with this:

 “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God: The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.”

Deuteronomy 28:1-2,12 (NIV)

God’s blessings and promises come with conditions. Some people may not want to hear that, but all action have consequences. The difference with God is that His blessings and promises far outweigh what He asks us to do. To wait in season means to obey God fully. It means studying the Bible to understand His commands so we can carefully follow them. It means being wise and discerning of the voices to guide us in that study. To wait in season means to be in action, living in obedience to God knowing He takes care of us.

Protect what we’re waiting for.

I wonder what would’ve happened if I contested the medical form and questioned why my doctor would recommend I retake the driver’s test. I suspect that I would’ve had to wait even longer. I might even have jeopardized the outcome of my license renewal. What would have happened if I couldn’t wait any longer for a new phone? I would have paid more and missed out on all the sales and rebates God had in store for me.

“Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen.”

James 5:7 (NLT)

James wrote about being patient in suffering by bringing up the farmers. I don’t have a green thumb, but I’ve managed to raise a grape tomato plant once upon a time. Waiting for the harvest was hard, and I never knew if I was taking care of the plant correctly. Was I watering it too much? Did it get enough sunlight? Do I prune it? Did I even use the right soil to begin with? I had never tried to grow produce before and I was anxious and overprotective. The tomatoes did come in eventually. It was fun to watch them grow in size and turn from green to red. It was satisfying to harvest and eat them.

It might seem odd to protect something that isn’t here yet, but we already do it in different ways. Students protect that college acceptance by doing their best in their current school. You might be protecting your forever home by saving up money now while you rent. People are protecting their retirements through different retirement plans. I am protecting my marriage by being careful and discerning as a single person.

Waiting is not an inactive act, and protecting the things we’re waiting for means acting like the blessings are on the way. I cannot and will not guarantee that we will receive the blessing we’re waiting in the way we think we’ll receive them. I know that when God pours out His blessings, they can look vastly different from how I imagined them to be. So a person waiting to be a parent might end up fostering a child or adopting a young adult into their family or becoming a spiritual parent to other people.

Nevertheless, we protect what we’re waiting for by patiently considering our circumstances like the farmers who do what they can for their awaited harvest and patiently wait through the things they can’t control. We do what we can to protect what we wait for without acting out of panic and fear because God is with us in the waiting.