In the Waiting

"...thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven," is a line from the Lord's prayer that many know and can recite by heart, religious or not.  but, here's the thing about that prayer -- we're so quick to make the "thy will be done" portion our prayer, without truly understanding what we mean, first. or not taking the second part into much consideration. we think of our desires and what it would mean to have the prayer answered. but, we tend to see it as God granting wish as if He's a genie.  the real key is to pray "thy will be done," and add the "even if..." to it.  your will be done... even if i don't get the job... even if i don't meet someone to marry... even if i don't get the job of my dreams... even if that particular house doesn't go through for me... even if, even if, even if... daniel 3:17 says, " but even if he does not , we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve y...

  doesn't it feel like our life is a series of moments in waiting? when you're a kid, you wait for christmas morning. then, count down the days until spring break, and finally summer vacation.  when you get to jr. hi, you're praying it will pass quickly so you'll be in high school. when you can drive, go on dates, attend dances with your friends.  when you're in high school, you wish your days away wanting to be in college, so you can move to another state and experience a little bit of life on your own.  as much as you enjoy college, you pray for the years to go by quick so you can land the dream job, meet the right person and make more money.  then, you dream of settling down and wearing the white dress down the aisle, marrying the person you've always dreamed of. and having the kids with the wraparound porch and the white picket fence.  but, there's a strange shift that happens once you get into your career.  your life never stops going through phas...

vienna by billy joel has been one of my all-time favorite songs since watching "13 going on 30" in my pre-teen years.  jenna rink becomes an adult seemingly overnight. And adulthood is not quite the picture perfect life she imagined. and isn't jenna all of us?  we rushed through childhood because we wanted to be teenagers with more freedom.  we rushed through our teenage years to get to college and early adulthood for more independence and to do what we want.  we rushed through that season to get jobs and have careers and get married and start, what we considered would be, the real beginnings of our lives.  we always want the next thing, assuming it will be better than the moment we're in. it seems like even as adults in our 30s and 40s, we still have that issue. or, i know i do.  the pandemic and shelter-in-place forced a lot of us to slow down in ways we never knew how to. in ways we'd never even thought we could. so many of us got used to that slower pac...