We spend so much of our lives waiting. Waiting for that vacation to come. Waiting for retirement to come. Waiting for that package to come in the mail. If we are dieting, we wait for the scale to creep down ever so slowly.
The worst kind of waiting is the waiting for something over which we have no control. Waiting for that acceptance letter to come. Waiting to hear from a special someone. Waiting for that promotion. Waiting for our kids to get sorted out right, whatever that means. And we wait and wait. And we hope, and we wait.
I’m not very good at waiting. I always tease my kids that they have trouble with four letter ‘W’ words, like ‘wait’ and ‘work’. Have to say they come by it honestly, because I am terrible at those things as well.
As I got news yesterday that I am waiting for something that may take a long time, it made me sad. Yes, it seems surprising that waiting can make you sad. More understandable is the anxiety it can create.
While I was thinking of this, I remembered something I read 30 years ago. It was actually in a column by Stephanie Brush, who used to (and may still) write a syndicated humor column. This particular column, though, was about depression.
She was talking about waiting for depression to pass. She compared it to waiting for Spring when it’s the middle of February, where if you are in a colder clime, it is not a happy time. It seems like Spring will never come. It seems like it has been winter forever and will be winter forever (kind of like that last few weeks of pregnancy!). Ms. Brush said something then that I will never forget. She reminded me that even in February, every day, the day is getting 2 minutes longer. We don’t see it, we don’t feel it directly, but every day, while we are stuck in our woes, the days are getting longer. And she advised this. “Trust the slow incremental creeping…” I love that. Trust the slow incremental creeping, because creeping it is.
While this applies to waiting for a depression to end, it also applies to just waiting. The most difficult kind of waiting is for the things over which we have no control. Because then we are concerned about outcomes – it must be a certain way at the end. But what if it doesn’t end that way? Cuz the reality is it might not. It might not turn out at all the way you want it to. Which I 100% guarantee you will sometimes be true.
So we can spend our time steeped in anxiety about that, or we can not.
The only thing I can tell about that, and this I assure you – whatever the outcome, you will find a way to get through it. No matter how bad it turns out, the world will keep spinning, and the sun will keep rising in the East and setting in the West. There may be a bad time, there may be heartbreak, but I guarantee you it will pass. You will find acceptance; you will over time adjust your dreams. Then there will be something else to worry about. Life is like that. If you let it, there will always be something to worry about.
As I sit here waiting for an outcome I desire at this very moment, I try to trust God has it in hand, no matter the outcome. At times like these, I find it always good to take a nap. Napping can solve many, many things! Then I can choose to do what’s right in front of me, even if it is something silly like playing a Nintendo game. Not everything we do in life has to be important.
Trust the slow incremental creeping. Face the fear that the outcome may not be the one you desire and deal with that fear. Remain optimistic. As the old saying goes, prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. Don’t watch the clock, it will only make the time seem longer.
We can’t change waiting. But we can change how we wait.
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