I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get very tired of waiting. I can tolerate waiting at the dentist’s office if I have my knitting with me or a book. I can even tolerate waiting for a package to arrive, albeit a little less patiently. Long term waiting, on the other hand, is a totally different thing. Sometimes I feel that I have been waiting my entire life for some things to come to pass and other things to pass away.

Finding a lucrative career is definitely at the top of the list, and by lucrative I mean being able to pay all my bills each month with a little left over and a cushion in my savings account. As I get older, it becomes even harder as I realize that my age is becoming a negative factor in getting a solid full-time job, forget benefits.

Lately, I was also dealing with some health issues that I wanted to go away but managed to stick closer than a brother. For instance, a run in with poison ivy that took 2 ½ months to finally get rid of, and the scars are still in the process of fading. While I was praying for it to heal, I came across Galatians 4:4, which says, “in the fullness of time,” meaning in God’s time it will come to pass. His timing is key, but it can be very frustrating in the interim.

Sometimes God’s way is through His waiting room. The key word here is “through” since the waiting room is not a permanent residence even though it feels like it at the time. However, just because you are in the waiting room doesn’t mean you stop living. Take Joseph for example. He waited in the cistern to be sold into slavery, and he waited in jail to be remembered by the man he helped. In the meantime, Joseph used his time well and took every opportunity to use his gifts and succeeded in rising to the top each time. While I am in the waiting room, I am trying to do the same thing. I asked myself: How can I use my gifts and abilities to glorify God and walk in my calling while I wait?

Psalms 27:13-14 says, “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

…in the meantime…do what you can do and leave the rest to God.

Recently, I ran into yet another bend in the road regarding my job, or at least one of them. It made me do some reevaluating of my future and my goals. In the process of that, I decided to reorganize my office, so I took everything out of the room, evaluated it, and either disposed of it or categorized it.  The biggest issue was the closet, which was filled floor to ceiling with paper in various forms. I discovered years of notes from the Southern Christian Writer’s Conference, pieces of finished works that had not been published, unfinished writing projects, and lots writing ideas. It reminded me of projects I had forgotten, but I also found printed copies of email conversations about projects that had potential but were rejected for various reasons. Many times I had received praise within the rejection, but I recall only the sting of rejection. Each time I had started down the road of making my dream a reality I would allow a few rejections to squash my dream and my will to try. It was a definite pattern.

In April, the ladies in our church completed a Bible study called Godly Grit from the website Grow which stands for God Reveals Our Way. Godly Grit is another way of saying Godly patience. The study came at just the right time to prepare me for what I found in that closet. The study focused on the life of Joseph who had a dream from God that he would one day rule over the people. I, too, had a dream, but my dream was to be a writer. However, receiving a dream from God and knowing what to do with that dream can be two very different dilemmas.

Joseph encountered a lot of roadblocks and side roads on his way to seeing his dream become a reality. He was sold into slavery, falsely imprisoned, and forgotten; however, all of these experiences helped mold him into the kind of man and the kind of leader that would be needed for the trials to come. As I went through my closet, I could see the roadblocks and side roads that I have been down in my journey as a writer, and I remember Joseph. Only time will tell exactly what I learned in each experience or how I will use what I know, but as people like to say: “It is not the destination; it is the journey.” Like the stack of writing in my closet, I need some revision, and sometimes it takes a side trip down the road not taken to get me where I need to be.

The important thing is to remember the dream God gave you and to continue to work toward it even when circumstances don’t make sense because if it is from God, He will bring the dream to a reality. He is the author and finisher of my faith, so He has the right to make revisions along the way. In the meantime, I will do what I can do to reach my dream and leave the rest to God.

I’m at war. My home has been invaded by an insidious little creature.  I didn’t even notice its initial appearance. In fact, even after I saw the potential signs, I ignored them, preferring ignorance. It wasn’t until the first full-fledged attack that I finally took note, but by then it had become a full out war.

Fleas…I have fleas. In some ways, I mean that quite literally. You see my cats have fleas, but my cats all live indoors, so where did said fleas come from? Apparently….me. I brought in the little devils unaware. Now we are all paying for it.

I went to the vet to discuss options as money is a definite issue, and I have 3 cats. Still, if nothing else, I needed to take care of their health first. The vet gave me an informational handout on how to deal with a flea infestation. It is a 3-pronged attack strategy: cats, house/bedding, and yard. First, I put flea medication on all 3 cats, which is a story in and of itself. Then, I had to spray the house, which involved keeping me and the cats away from the mist and vapor and letting it settle for 2 hours, which is also another story for later. I would spray the yard, but it has been raining every day, and I’m hoping they have all drowned. After the mist settled, I cleaned the house, and I mean cleaned the house. I have washed, dusted and vacuumed basically every surface in my house, twice. The sad thing is….they could come back.

It occurred to me that temptation and sin work much the same way. It sneaks up on us if we are not paying attention, and then it insinuates itself in our soul, much like a flea in the carpet. It is difficult to root out and has a tendency to replicate at an astounding rate. The 3-pronged strategy has applications here as well. First, you treat the main infestation, which is your soul under attack. Then, you have to clean up the house, your body. Finally, you have to protect your environment.

However, all of this could have been prevented if I had not believed that it couldn’t happen to me. Temptations are all around us, so we must be vigilant and keep our defenses up. Ephesians chapter 6 gives us the spiritual armor that we need to protect ourselves: the helmet of salvation, the belt of truth, feet shod with peace, the breastplate of righteousness, the sword of the Spirit (Word of God), and the shield of faith. If we put these on daily, then we are prepared to fight any temptation that comes our way. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cures…especially when you’re dealing with sin…or fleas.