Growing up in small town Mississippi, my idea of traffic was having to stop at all 6 red lights between my house and church. Rarely {if ever} did I have to worry about other cars. Traffic just wasn't a thing. Even when my parents moved to North Mississippi right outside of Memphis, I still didn't experience real traffic.
But let me tell you. New Orleans {NOLA} knocks the ball out of the park when it comes to traffic. Lord have mercy. It's the worst. Truly I have never experienced such anxiety than I have sitting in traffic down here.
To clarify, it's not bad everywhere, but the problem is that I work on the West Bank and live on the East Bank. Because of the location of my apartment on the EB and my school on the WB, the route I have to take is the Crescent City Connection Bridge. On the way to work is fine, but on the way home is quite possibly the worst traffic on planet earth {okay, not really because I saw a video from a traffic jam in Beijing and let's be real I'm also being somewhat dramatic}. But it is bad. I work only about 4 to 5 miles from my school, but it can take me over an hour {like yesterday} to get home.
I hate the stopping and going. I hate the turtle poking. Oh the anxiety and stress that builds inside of me. Some days are worse than others. Some days it doesn't bother me at all, and some days I feel like I am going to start ripping my hair out. It feels so nonsensical to just sit there in that traffic. There's no obvious reason other than too many cars trying to all go the same way obviously. I feel like I am wasting precious and valuable time of my life just sitting there. I'm stuck. There's nowhere to move. There's nowhere to go. I'm just stuck.
Sound familiar?
Sounds a little like all my pity parties in this waiting place. Frustration. Irritation. Confusion. Anxiety. Stress. Wasting valuable time. etc.
Just this year {a year after enduring that craziness}, I discovered an alternate route. It is actually probably a little longer on the mileage side, but the difference is unbelievable. It can literally lake me the same amount of time if not shorter to go the longer distance on the Huey P. Long Bridge. There's no stop and go. It's just slow and steady. There is zero anxiety.
Such a simple choice. Taking the Huey P versus the Crescent City Connection. Knowing myself well enough to know that this one little decision can spare me of so much anxiety and stress.
So what on earth does this have to do with redeeming my waiting place? Oh it has every thing to do with redeeming my waiting place.
I have no control over how long I'm gonna have to wait for an answer for whether or not I will ever marry, but regardless, this is still my journey to walk. This is still my waiting place. Because I choose to wait on God, there's no getting out at this point unless He so chooses that for me. Just like I have to drive home one way or the other every day. I have to make that drive, but it is up to me which route I take.
There comes a point where I have to make some conscious decisions to spare myself any unnecessary or extra anxiety/stress. So I had to stop reading Christian romance novels. So maybe I should stop watching TLC's Say Yes to the Dress. I know the things that can automatically set off my heart into no-man's land. I know what will cause my mind to have anxious thoughts.
I want to make the most of every season of my life. I would rather spend this waiting time anxiety-less and stress-less. I only have these days and this season once. God is using even this. It's my choice how I spend my time in this waiting place.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
{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.}
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
No comments:
Post a Comment