Just let it marinate

I have a confession to make: I want what I want and I want it now.

If we're honest, isn't that the way we all feel sometimes? (Back me up on this one here, folks!) Why is waiting just so stinking hard somtimes? I want something to happen, whether it's an opportunity, a relationship, a posession, a change in myself, or whatever, and I want it to happen now. Poof! Instant satisfaction.

Problem is, God just doesn't work that way. He seems to reeealy like to make us wait. And wait. And wait. And wonder what the heck he's up to.

There are a few situations in my life these days where I so want things to be different than they are, but it seems there is just absolutely no way that that is going to happen right now. One (among many) of those situations involves a friend of mine. Our friendship has taken a bit of a beating, I guess. I used to talk to this person regularly, but a series of events transpired and we don't really talk much anymore. Right now, it feels like I've lost a good friend, and it makes me sad. I think time will make things better, but I want them to be better now. I miss my friend. There a few other situations, too, and every time I think about trying to change things a little, I come up against a brick wall. Ok, God, I get it.

No. Not now. Patience. Wait. In the words of a wise philosopher named Hitch, "Just let it marinate."

I get tired of sitting around in the muck and the goo, but I guess it's necessary in order to let the things God wants to teach me soak in, to permeate my character. (Um, did I just compare myself to meat?)

It's learning to be content with the way things are that I think is going to be a big lesson for me these days. And so here I sit, wondering what God's got up his sleeve, knowing that sometimes the most important things are teh things he does in us in the waiting times. I know that God is good, and that he has got great plans for my life. I've just got to learn to do that whole patience thing a little bit better.