Dear friend,
but those who wait for 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.
I refreshed my email eleven times yesterday about something I'm not even going to name because it's embarrassing how much power I gave it. Eleven times. My daughter asked why I kept picking up my phone and putting it down again and I didn't have a good answer for a four year old, let alone myself.
I keep coming back to that passage in Isaiah about those who wait finding their strength renewed, rising up the way an eagle does. I used to picture that as a peaceful image, someone resting quietly until the answer came. But an eagle rising doesn't look passive to me anymore. It looks like something working hard against wind it can't control, using what's underneath it instead of fighting it. Waiting there isn't the same as doing nothing. It's staying upright while nothing moves.
I don't know what you're waiting on right now, or how long it's been sitting there unresolved. I know the checking-your-phone kind of waiting and the years-long kind, and they both wear you down differently. What's the waiting costing you most today, the hope or the patience?
A prayer
God, You know exactly what she's waiting on and how tired she is of holding it. Renew whatever's worn thin in her tonight, and give her something steady to stand on while she waits. Amen.