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waiting on God and
wondering
By
Dr. Scott Rodin
I enjoyed most all aspects of flying, but
there was one exercise that I found both challenging and tedious.
From time to time, when approaching an
airport, air traffic control would require you to enter into a holding pattern
until the runway was clear for you to land.
Now, holding patterns provide pilots with an
interesting challenge.
A holding pattern is like a track at a high
school football field. It has two long sides and curves at each end.
To enter into a holding pattern, you line
yourself up on the long side that is the same vector that will put you on your
approach to the airport.
Then, at a designated moment, you make what’s
called a standard rate turn in the direction of the holding pattern to which
you were assigned.
A standard rate turn is one that, if you
continued for 2 minutes, would bring you back to the exact same spot where you
started.
The idea is to make this turn for 60 seconds,
which will put you on a parallel course going exactly the opposite direction,
or the other side of the track.
You follow this for a designated time and
then repeat the turn for another 60 seconds which, all things being equal, will
put you back on the right vector on headed to the airport.
However, all things are seldom equal. In
fact, most times there is some wind and often significant wind to contend with,
and with wind, the entire process becomes substantially more difficult.
Wind requires you to make constant
adjustments, continually recalculating, checking your altitude and location so
you don’t end you up far too close or much too far away from your original
course.
The whole exercise is to be sure that when
you return you are back on the right line to the airport. There is much relief when
you’re finally cleared to land and can leave the pattern.
In one way, flying a holding pattern means
going nowhere successfully. That is, you’ve done a great job if you fly around
for a long time and end up exactly where you started.
That is actually the whole point. It doesn’t
mean you don’t work hard, and it doesn’t mean it’s not challenging.
One day while flying a holding pattern with
my instructor I got frustrated because we were being asked to hold so many
times and the wind was causing me a great deal of challenge.
He responded that I should use this as a
great opportunity to learn skills I might not otherwise learn.
And he was right, once you’ve flown several
holding patterns in a wind you are a much better pilot.
In my journey in following Jesus I find
myself going through seasons where I feel much like flying a holding pattern.
Despite much prayer, listening and watching,
there are definitely waiting seasons in my life. I am in an elongated one right
now.
It can get frustrating, and it’s helped me to
reflect back on this experience of flying these holding patterns.
They are always for a purpose and they
provide substantial opportunities to learn, grow stronger and be even more
prepared when the call is given to head to the airport.
I’ve also been reflecting on how many of the
great heroes of our faith were recalled out of a holding pattern when the time
was right.
I think of Joseph in prison all those years,
yet when the opportunity came, he was ready.
I think of Moses tending sheep in Midian for
so long, but when God called him, he was ready, if somewhat reluctantly, to
leave his holding pattern and head for Egypt.
I think of Saul after he met Jesus on the
road to Damascus, he did not go immediately into ministry but went away for a
period of time in preparation for the work God would have him do.
The list can go on and on.
I’m also encouraged by the significant amount
of scripture that calls on God’s followers to wait on Him.
Doing a quick search, I found over 50
scriptures that referred to this part of our journey with Jesus.
Of course, one of the
most popular is Isaiah 40:31, “They that wait upon the Lord will renew their
strength, they will mount up with wings like eagles they will run and not be
weary they will walk and not faint.”
Clearly God calls us into holding patterns to
prepare us for the next destination. The question is, will we hold well?
Let me put it another way which I find even
more challenging, Will we be content with going nowhere successfully?
By going nowhere, I don’t mean nothing
happens.
As I have said, these waiting times are
unique opportunities for God to prune us, prepare us, call us into a deeper
union with Him, all the things we need for whatever the next season may hold.
These are rich opportunities that we must not
miss.
Instead, we must steward them carefully,
submitting them back to God and asking that He does fully in us all that needs
to be done before we get the call to leave our pattern and head to our next
destination.
Are you in God’s holding pattern in your life
right now? Some of you may already be flying headlong in a direction you know
God is calling you.
But I’m guessing many, if not most of us, can
relate to this idea of waiting on God and wondering what this time might really
be about.
Steward every minute of your holding pattern
and don’t miss a moment of what God has to teach you.
Cherish it as a God-ordained season of your
life. One thing is for sure, He will call us and we want to be on the right
vector, heading in the right direction, having held well.
It may feel like we’ve been going nowhere,
but in reality, we are being prepared lap by lap, circuit by circuit for the
work He is preparing for us to do.
It will be a glorious day when we get the
call from our great air traffic controller to leave the pattern and head in the
direction He’s prepared for us.
But until then, steward this time with
anticipation and be at peace.
Dr.
Scott Rodin
is the president of The Steward's Journey, whose mission is to inspire and
equip God's people to be free and joyful stewards of life. He also serves as
President of Kingdom Life Publishing and Rodin Consulting Inc.
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