The Potion of Waiting

C.S. Lewis was fond of referring to God's wonder in our lives as a kind of 'magic'. "...the whitest magic in the world". (Collected Letters Nov/53)

If we take that vein and say God's work in our lives is 'white magic' then one potion he sets before us, is the potion of Waiting. Yes, plain old waiting.

I've been meditating lately on how God had Biblical Characters drink deeply from the potion of Waiting. I dare say, anyone who did anything 'big' had to wait for what seemed like a horrifically long time. David was anointed King when he was young, and then - horror of horrors, the one he was to replace went about trying to kill him. And he had to run for his life. What God promised: David had to wait for. And Joseph... he knew from a dream, that he would one day be so powerful his family would bow before him, but God had him drink the potion of waiting over and over. While his brothers discussed how they would kill him: he waited. While a hussy had him sent away on a trumped up rape charge - he waited. While someone who promised to remember him, forgot him - he waited. Even though he knew God was going to bless him in a big way, he waited. And waited. And waited again. The potion of waiting is always used to bring some 'white magic' in our lives, that could not be received any other way. In David, Joseph, and even Jesus. Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered. Waiting has it's own suffering. All creation groans as it waits.

You have to know, I hate waiting. I am in a hurry. I want so many things now. Especially good things. Oh God, don't make me wait for good things. I trusted God and waited until I was 35 to marry the 'wonder man' that God provided for me. Then we had to wait and wait until we were 'medically' too old to conceive for God to give us our 'Miracle Mandy'. And I waited to get a book published - until I was 50.

Lately, Tom and I have been waiting for years for another dream to come true. First we prayed for 3 years for a home on an island (and that alone seemed an impossible dream). And then after 3 years, God made a way, and we finally began to build a dream home on the dream Island, in 2007. We moved in and you have never seen someone praise God more or more fervently than I did, everyday for allowing us to live in that home. After 120 days in the home, it became apparent that we had to move out - due to other losses in other funds. So, we did, and now, strangers live in our dream home.

We moved to a much less home in a much less neighborhood, and my job now, is to clean toilets and floors in our dream home after the strangers leave. Sometimes when I'm cleaning some stranger's body hair or body oils off my bed, or their cigar butts off the deck of our dream home, I ask God again, to please make a way for us to move back in. And so far, God says, "have another drink of the bitter potion of waiting, it's good for you. It will make you spiritually whole'. And I obey, and trust, and wait.

Maybe God is asking you to drink the awful potion of waiting today. Maybe it's bitter to you. (Nobody I know likes it). Just remember, you are in good company as this awful suffering transforms and heals you into something more...well...magical. And the resulting magic, is so amazing, it causes the world to look up in wonder."