For Those Of You...

...who have ever felt that life was on hold or that your dreams have been put on the shelf, I have some good news: God may be doing His best work in your life during your downtime.  Why do I say that?  Well for one I've felt it in my own life and seen what comes of the waiting.  I will refrain for a moment from getting "preachy" and offer an everyday, practical example from my own experience.

I have enjoyed a long career with my company- almost 17 years.  A few years back I decided to try something different within the organization, going from sales management into a marketing position.  I moved my family to beautiful town near the corporate headquarters, set up my office, bought a nice house and for 3 years thoroughly hated it.  "Oh, you made a mistake", you might say.  Hardly.  God systematically broke down a hardened, ego-inflated heart over those 3 years.  He forced me to re-evaluate my life and re-engage with my family.  For me, He drew a clear line in the sand between my livelihood and my life.

The bible is full of stories of great men and women who, despite their own ideas of what they should be doing with their lives, had to wait upon the Lord.  Take the apostle Paul for example.  Many people think that he was converted on a Damascus road and instantly began his world-changing ministry.  The reality is that after his first brush with ministering to the Jews he barely escaped with his life.  This led to 3 years of seclusion and study in Arabia and eventually 5-6 years back in his hometown of Tarsus.  Can you imagine that?  Paul was raised and trained in Pharisaic law, had been converted to Christianity in one of the most dynamic ways possible and now he was back in his hometown making tents.  Now that's a dream put on a shelf!  It's also God working on a very hard case, moving a man from self-centered to servant.  As you know, the story has a happy ending.  Barnabas, a lesser know apostle, seeks Paul out, asking for help to preach to the growing church in Antioch.  And so begins the next 20 years of Paul's worldwide ministry. 

Are you in your "Tarsus" right now?  Waiting for something... anything?  You're in good company if you are.  It may be that your train has been derailed because of a financial misjudgement; a failed marriage; a lost job; a tragic accident or chronic disease.  Maybe it's due to circumstances for which you have no control.  Whatever the case, there is something great in store for you- God precedes His best work in our waiting.

As F. B Meyer wrote almost a century ago, "As you go down the long corridor you may find that He has preceded you and locked many doors which you would fain have entered; but be sure that beyond these there is one which He has left unlocked.  Open it and enter, and you will find yourself face to face with a bend of the river of opportunity, broader and deeper than anything you dared to imagine in your sunniest dreams.  Launch forth on it; it conducts to the open sea."