learning patience

Hope in the Queue

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While typing and printing off documents, my printer suddenly decided to morph into la-la land. Electronic devices are wonderful — until they don’t work. Then we’re stuck.

Frustrated, I tried several times to print the last document, not realizing what was happening on the other end of electronic cyberspace. After rebooting, unplugging, and still not printing, I turned everything off and quit for the day.

The next morning, the printer decided to resuscitate itself. It spewed out page after page of my document that had been hiding in the queue. Eventually, it stopped — but not before I added several inches to my pile of recyclable scrap paper. Sometimes, the electronic world imitates life.

How many times have we prayed and prayed, waited and waited, while it seemed heaven itself lived in an introverted silence?

Nothing happens for weeks, months, even years. Our prayers seem stuck in the queue of God’s waiting room. Then suddenly — an avalanche of answered prayers, all bunched up at the same time. We gasp at the range of unexpected blessings and rejoice in the assurance that God surely loves us.

As a writer, sometimes my words get stuck in the creative queue. I’ve never experienced a complete writer’s block, but I do know how to procrastinate and avoid sitting in the chair. What I have discovered is that the discipline produces its own fruit.

Although I may slug through a paragraph or two, if I keep going, keep making the words happen, keep moving my fingers — the creative gift kicks in. I’m in another world for hours.

So what can we learn from our moments stuck in the queue?

Persistence is a Worthwhile Virtue. The best writing evolves as a result of self-discipline. When we give it our best and keep at it, day after day — eventually, we produce good fruit.

Persistence in prayer is a worthwhile venture. Although we may not see the results for a while, eventually the discipline we have learned will result in a stronger soul. Hopefully also a deeper faith in the One who decides how and when to answer those prayers.

Nothing worthwhile happens easily. Even Jesus had to count the cost and persist until his task was finished.

Persistence Requires Patience. Persistence and patience are twins. They sometimes look alike and often require the same disciplines to feed them. But the persistence twin is a process while the patience twin reveals a quality of life.

Patience reminds us to wait, then wait more. When we can no longer stand the wait, persistence digs deep. We learn how much strength authentic waiting requires.

Patience is the months-or-years-long battle, waiting for the chemo to take effect and save a life. Patience allows the preschooler to tie his own shoes even while the school bus honks.

Patience sits beside the Alzheimer’s resident and hears the same questions again and again, then responds with a gentle spirit. Patience gives grace when the addiction festers, but the victim still tries to recover.

Patience learns through the passage of time because it cannot be hurried. If we want the best result, we must not deny the waiting.

The Best Action may be No Action. For planners and doers like me, it feels better to do something. To hit that print button over and over. To unplug and try again and again. But sometimes, the cyberspace universe has to first get its pixels in order and find its missing megabytes.

I don’t even understand its language. How then, can I make it do something?

When we’ve prayed and prayed, waited and persisted yet nothing happens — we can use the prayer of release. Oh God, I can’t stand this, and I absolutely have no clue what to do. Please take over and do whatever you need to do to mend this problem. Help me to rest in you and trust that you know exactly what’s wrong and how to fix it. I give up.

The prayer of release feels counterintuitive to what we’ve been taught about productivity. But even the Psalmist portrayed the same advice, “Be still and rest in the Lord; wait for him and patiently lean yourself upon him. Fret not…” (Psalm 37:7 Amplified).

Be still. Unplug. Stop trying to figure it out. Don’t worry. Let go and let God salve your weary soul.

If we don’t learn how to be still, then we end up with a heap of nothing: wasted words, frustrated prayers, piles of worthless paper.

As we wait in the queue for God to restore and redeem what is so wrong, we can know with faith’s certainty that God does indeed know what he’s doing.

Maybe he’s just waiting for us to unplug and trust him so he can finish the task.

©2023 RJ Thesman – All Rights Reserved

Waiting is often a daily practice. Learn more about it in Day by Day: Hope for Senior Wisdom.

Hope Nudges Forward

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When we wait on God for answers, it often feels like a test of patience.

Throughout my journey, experience has taught me to wait on God. When I step forward too soon and try to force something to happen — it ends in lost revenue, additional stress, or a clunky mess. Then I am filled with regret and play the “I should have” game.

My answers do not end as well as the divine ones.

But within those waiting times, it feels better to sense a nudge forward. Sometimes God puts on his loving Father hat with a gentle push in the right direction. As I tiptoe forward, the way opens.

When faced with major decisions, I often journal through the issue using five questions:

  • What do I sense God is telling me about this decision?
  • What does scripture remind me to do or instruct me about this decision?
  • What do other godly friends say and how do they advise me?
  • What do the circumstances tell me?
  • Do I have peace with this decision?

When the majority of these questions point in the same direction, then I know I am probably on the right track. I say ‘probably’ because life is still an adventure. We can be deceived or influenced by desires that lead us away from eternal destinies.

Since peace is one of my core values, it rarely fails me and serves as a symbol of the right direction.

On a quiet January morning, I watched the snow-flocked trees soak up the day’s warmth and gracefully release their burdens. Once more, God watered the earth with his mineral richness of powdery grace. We farmers and gardeners know how snow blesses the soil and enriches future crops.

But in the solitude of those moments, the Spirit reminded me of several promises:

  • God will guide me toward the best possible direction (Isaiah 49:10)
  • While strengthening me for the journey, God enlarges the place and even the way I might help others (Isaiah 54:2)
  • God himself anoints and qualifies me for the work he has designed for my last act (Isaiah 61:1)
  • The Master Gardener plants me where I need to be (Isaiah 61:3)
  • The acceptable and most opportune times are in the hands of my loving God (Psalm 69:13)

A final promise whispered, “Then shall your light break forth like the morning, and your healing (your restoration and the power of a new life) shall spring forth speedily; your rightness, your justice, and your right relationship with God shall go before you, conducting you to peace and prosperity, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard” (Isaiah 58:8 Amplified).

I sat on my bed, journal and Bible spread open, and wept at the beauty of this final promise. God heals and restores the weary soul. He provides power for whatever new life we walk into. He reassures us that we do not travel this journey alone. He goes before and behind us. As he takes care of us, the result is peace.

God never fails, even when we do not understand. Are there still unknowns? Of course. The faith journey always occurs in steps — never in one giant leap.

But for now, this nudge forward challenges me to believe the next step will be revealed at the right time. Where God places me and what my role looks like is listed in his job description, not mine. He will steady me throughout the journey, and the end result will be bathed in peace.

©2023 RJ Thesman – All Rights Reserved

If we have defined our life by a faith walk, then we continue to do what has always worked — day by day. Check out these devotions in Day by Day: Hope for Senior Wisdom.

Hope in a Puzzle

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My puzzle reflects the colors and design of the Southwest United States — a region I love. Turquoise moccasins, Native American pottery and a sunset of desert textures.Southwest Puzzle

Yet beyond the stress-relieving act of fitting my puzzle pieces together, God teaches me precious lessons of faith.

Think about the Big Picture. Once I found the borders of the puzzle, everything should have begun to snugly fit together.

But something didn’t look right.

My son found the answer. He’s a consider-the-forest guy while I look at the trees. “This piece doesn’t fit,” he said, picking up a copper squiggle. “It skews the big picture.”

He was right. When I found the correct piece and snapped it into place, the big picture made more sense.

Sometimes we think a certain direction is best for our lives. But something about the final decision doesn’t seem right.

Something doesn’t fit.

Red flags stop us or circumstances change. We can’t see the big picture.

But God can. He exists beyond the past, present and future. He knows how to work out our lives and fit each day into the next so our destinies become clear.

Don’t Try to Force an Answer. A puzzle piece may look right and seem to fit, but one side snags or won’t quite align. Forcing the piece into that particular hole can bend it or even break it.

Then the puzzle is flawed.

If we try to force something to work or move forward on our own, we can damage ourselves or someone else in our sphere of influence.

If the circumstances aren’t working out and our pathway seems skewed, trying to force a decision, a relationship or a direction messes with our destiny.

How many of us have forged ahead and forced something to happen, then later regretted our actions?

When God manages the puzzles of our lives, all the pieces end up fitting together perfectly — without adverse circumstances.

Give It Time. A 300-piece puzzle cannot be completed in one hour. My puzzle lay on the table for several weeks where I worked on it a few minutes at a time.

As we face decisions or transitions in life, they take time to percolate and work out all the details. Patience is learned through the long passage of time.

Hurry is the antagonist of patience.

The best relationships involve the excitement of gradually learning about each other. Starting a new job includes a learning curve and perseverance.

Writing a book requires late nights, early mornings or weekend discipline. One word, one sentence, one character sketch at a time until the final period is typed. Sometimes the process takes years.

The best answers are revealed as a result of a waiting period. The strongest faith is birthed through years of experience, long periods of waiting and the courage to ask questions that may even increase the struggle.

We often don’t see a purpose in the details until patience has completed its perfect work.

The Apostle James underscored this truth, “When the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow. So let it grow, and don’t try to squirm out of your problems. For when your patience is finally in full bloom, then you will be ready for anything, strong in character, full and complete” (James 1:3-4 The Living Bible).

God rarely answers our “Why?”  questions. Instead, he urges us to trust — even when we’re so weary we can only continue the journey with an extra measure of God’s grace.

My puzzle gives me joy, because I love the colors and the promise of the final result.

Surely God also feels joy when he moves the pieces of our lives together. The final result reflects his love.

We just need to stay in hope, let him move the pieces around and patiently wait.

©2019 RJ Thesman – All Rights Reserved

November is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month. Have you checked out my Reverend G books and Sometimes They Forget?

Hope in the Waiting

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So many people seem to be waiting.clock - Victorian

  • A good friend is waiting in ICU with her seriously ill husband
  • My son is waiting for complete healing and a blood clot to dissolve
  • Another friend’s son is waiting anxiously for a job opening
  • My nephew is waiting for the day his bride walks down the aisle – 46 days
  • I am waiting for the final author proof of my newest book

Waiting for answers. Waiting for circumstances to change. Waiting for life to move forward.

The word that comes to mind is “frenemy.” One of those complex thoughts where writers like me often dwell.

A frenemy is a person we invite into our inner circle as a friend, yet we may dislike many of their qualities. Frenemies seem to be on our side, then they turn on us.

Bringing the concept of waiting into personification makes it a frenemy.

In hindsight, we know waiting helps our faith grow. Yet enduring the days and weeks of tested patience seems to play on the negative side of this oxymoron.

Living in limbo, waiting for the outcome, for the answered prayer.

In the waiting, we are proven.

How do we stay in hope while the frenemy of waiting besieges us, steals time and forces us to dig deeper into endurance?

I only know what works for me:

  • Admit I am impatient.
  • Call the frenemy of waiting what it is.
  • Re-read my journals about past times of waiting: 10 years for a healthy child, 3 years to sell a house, another 10 years to complete and publish a book.
  • Remember God is timeless. He defines “soon” with eternal measurements.
  • Try to learn the lesson of patience—again.

And when I scrape the bottom of my endurance barrel, I repeat Psalm 43:5, “Hope in God for I will yet praise Him.”

I find hope as I live in the “yet.”

©2018 RJ Thesman – All Rights Reserved

If you’re in a waiting period and scraping the bottom of your endurance barrel, consider a read-through of Hope Shines – nuggets of encouragement for weary souls.