Levels of Waiting

In my opinion, there are two different levels of waiting.

Waiting for planned/set moments | level one. Waiting for unknown/wanted moments | level two.

Level one can be tough. I'm thinking along the lines of 9 months to the baby's entrance into the world. Engagement to wedding day. Childhood to graduation day. Now until I get back on a plane to East Asia. First day of school to summer. These are things that will inevitably come. The waiting is a set amount of time. You can count down the days. This can be some crazy, hard waiting.

There's no downplaying that waiting. But ..

Level two has got some intensity to it that I don't even know if I can articulate on here. There's just something about waiting for something that you don't know will ever come. In level one, that baby is gonna come. summer will come. that graduation day will come. But there's not guarantee in level two. You just never know.

That's a whole different kind of waiting. I used to think level one waiting was hard. I really did. I thought graduation from high school would never come. Some days I think summer will never come back again. But there's something about watching those days ticking down on my Days Until app that encourages me. It gives me hope.

There's no Days Until app for a nonexistent husband {or boyfriend, for that matter}. for the end of infertility. for healing. for answered prayers. for the return of a prodigal child. for restoration. for freedom from addiction.

Funny enough. I think of God having a Days Until app for each of us for whatever has us in our waiting place. Because that's the thing. He knows. That's the assurance we have to hold on to. But the thing about His Days Until app is that it isn't a countdown to us getting exactly what we want. God's Days Until app is a countdown to our ultimate understanding whether that is this side of heaven or the other.

He is working all things for our good and His glory. His ways are not my ways, and my thoughts are not His thoughts. He knows each of our days and has them written in His book before one of them has come to be.

This is an opening to two days of looking at the lives of two women who did a whole lot of waiting and not particularly well which ironically sounds like someone else I know {insert emoji with woman raising her hand}. Sarah and Rachel waited. They know what I mean when I say level two waiting. I hope through looking at them a little closer, we can see the goodness of God especially in the waiting.
  

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{This blog post is a part of a series called Redeeming the Waiting Place for the Write31Days challenge to write every day in October. You can find links to all posts in my series here. If you're interested, the Write31Days challenge is being taken by hundreds and hundreds of other wonderful bloggers which you can read more of right here. My personal favorite is browsing all the inspirational and Godly women who are blogging under the Inspiration & Faith tab which you can check out as well right here.}