Wait For It
by L.D. Kirklin
After several weeks of living in a Valley covered with ice that couldn’t melt due to subzero temperatures, I am more convinced than ever that there are two types of people in the world: those who enjoy winter, and those who are waiting for Spring! As it happens, I hold a high-ranking position in the Spring Waiting Association.
Perhaps it’s the lack of sunlight, the constant chill, the absence of color, or a combination of the like, but there is just something about the doldrums of winter that seems to rob me of my goals and ambitions. It’s almost as if when the last leaf of Autumn falls, taking the temperatures down with it, I instantly begin the countdown to more sunshine, pretty flowers, and beautiful blue skies. I spend the winter just waiting for that moment when the sun makes its south to north journey across the vernal equinox … which is just a fancy way of saying, “the first day of SPRING” … for things to get better. After all, good things come to those who wait, right?
If you think about it, we spend a substantial portion of each day waiting. We wait for traffic lights to change from red to green. We wait to check out at the grocery store … or these days, some wait for their groceries to come to them. We wait for people to call or text back, and for the next episode of our favorite television series. We wait to be seated at a restaurant, or to talk to a representative … after all, our call is very important to them. No, in truth, there is no shortage of waiting in each day.
As a writer, I spend many hours waiting for the right words to come to me. It can be a real struggle, and I often find myself wondering if a lack of the right words is what sparked some of the fun ones out there like ‘kerfuffle’, bumfuzzle’, and ‘hootenanny’. I mean, I don’t know about you, but every now and then words just don’t exist to convey how ‘flummoxed’ I can be by the ‘hullabaloo’ around me.
Of course, when it comes to making up words, there is none more creative than Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss. His comical words like ‘sneedle’ and ‘flunnle’ make for fun reading. However, it isn’t just his funny words that I enjoy, it’s also the lessons to be learned between the comical lines.
Take for example, “The Zax”. In this story we find a North-going Zax and a South-going Zax who meet face-to-face in the Prairie of Prax. What happens? Well, they wait. You see, neither of the Zax will take a step to the east or to the west, so they wait for the other to give in and move. They wait…and wait … for their situation to change. Meanwhile things start to happen near them and before they know it, an entire highway is built overtop and around them, full and complete with the “Zax Bypass”. Why? Because there, in the same spot, stand the no-going Zax.
Now, this story could be interpreted as a lesson on the ill effects and pointlessness of being stubborn and unyielding, but I see it as a lesson on waiting. There are occasions when waiting is what we need to do, often because our next step depends on someone or something else, but here’s the thing; waiting isn’t the problem. The problem is what we do … or don’t do … while we wait.
In the story of the traveling Zax in the Prairie of Prax, they did nothing except let the obstacles in their path thwart their progress. Boy, do I know that feeling. The Zax missed out on so much around them because all they could see was the one thing they thought they wanted: to move forward. The irony is that their desire to move forward is what stopped them completely. They both basically said, “It’s my way or the highway”, and the highway it was.
The fact is, we’re going to face seasons of struggle and it’s easy to get bogged down into a waiting position when we do. When it seems like there’s nothing we can do to better our situation, we just wait for it to change. But what if those seasons are not about the struggle or the wait? What if they are about what we choose to do while we wait? What if they are about seeing our blessings amid our struggles?
Perhaps, like me, you’ve been standing still, just waiting for Spring to arrive. Or perhaps you are waiting for a relationship to heal, or a job to get better. Whatever it is that has us waiting, let’s try to remember that what we choose to do while we wait can make all the difference in how long our wait seems.
While you’re waiting for the door to open, praise Him in the hallway … and never underestimate the power of perspective.
