What to Do When You Are Forced to Wait

‎”As I wait, You make me strong.” Song lyrics by Lamont Hiebert. It is a privilege to wait on the Lord. My husband, Gary, and I experienced an intense and enduring season of waiting last year when we moved to Birmingham, AL in hopes of Gary receiving a lung transplant. We had waited for 5 months before he was placed on the list as a candidate for transplant and received news on May 1 that he was “listed.” We moved to be near UAB (Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham) May 23 and received our first phone call 6 days later saying, “Mr. Godwin, we may have a lung for you. Don’t eat or drink anything and be at the hospital within an hour.” It turned out that the lung was not viable and we went home to our rental apt. to wait for the next call. Over the course of the next four months, we received 4 more calls for a possible lung, and each time we went home after 4-5 hours disappointed and crest-fallen. Each time, we would once again fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, for His strength, promise and hope. Each time He reminded us that that our hope and trust was in the One who created the heavens and the earth with His spoken Word and we continued to pray for the perfect lung in His perfect time. On Sept. 28, we received our sixth call and we went to the now familiar ATC room at the HTIC unit to wait. This day we waited for 8 hours, when suddenly they the doctor came in to tell us Gary would be transplanted that night. Suddenly, everything came together and he was wheeled into surgery. Less than 3 hours later, the doctor came into the room to tell our family that the surgery went perfectly and that Gary had a new beautiful lung. Today Gary is back announcing his beloved Jaguar basketball and baseball games and working out 5 days a week. Psalm 84 says It is indeed a privilege to wait upon the Lord, for in our weakness His strength is made manifest.
Is. 40:31
“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.”

Yes, I am waiting. Like you, I DO NOT LIKE WAITING. Unfortunate for us humans, God seems to find it necessary to put us in “waiting seasons” frequently throughout life.

I read a quote once that basically said, “When you can’t do anything else, just do the next thing.” When I find myself in these seasons of waiting, I purposefully focus on what I KNOW to be God’s will. The future is sometimes cloudy and uncertain, but there is always light for today. Today I can walk in joy and obedience. Tomorrow always belongs to an all-knowing God.

(By the way, hope your granddaughter’s test results come back clear!)

Let me start out by saying that my husband and I have one beautiful miracle in our son. This year we have foun out just how much of a miracle he is. I found out last summer that I could, “medically”, not have any more children without help. This prompted my husband and I to investigate In Vitrofertilization. We just finished our cycle and 2 weeks ago found out that it didn’t take. We only have one embryo left and we will try again in May. In the meantime waiting on God has been a real challenge. We have had many suggestions such and adoption and maybe we are only meant to have one child. The most helpful thing anyone has said to me came from my grandfather, a retired pastor. He said that it’s not about having enough faith or praying enough, it’s about submitting your path to God no matter what the outcome may be. This is a very tough lesson to hear and learn because I really want another child and I know that God is able to work around my issues. I mean, who knows my body better than He does. My work, however, is to submit to His authority over every area of my life and this can sometimes be even harder than the waiting. I just have to keep praying that He will give me the strength, humility and grace to submit my way to Him no matter the outcome of my circumstances.

I go everywhere with my Kindle; sometimes my wife makes fun of me for taking it with me to family gatherings, even though I rarely use it. I always tell her, “Someday, we’ll be sitting in an airport lobby with nothing to do, and you’ll be the one without anything to read.” There have been a couple of times in our 4-year marriage where she’s already said to me, “Man, I wish I had something to read at this moment.”

Great advice. I’m not good at waiting either; one of my strategies is to tell friends. It’s easier to wait with friends than alone. 

I have been waiting for a year and I am still not sure what I am waiting for. I just keep doing what I am supposed to be doing now.

Michael, great post. I would like to add two other thoughts.  I learned this the hard way, spending 6 weeks in the hospital waiting for a liver and kidney transplant

First, understand that most waits are beyond your control. They are also probably beyond the control of most of the people who you directly deal with. What we may think are simple transactions are very complex. Therefore, stewing about it is useless.

Second, deal with those who are on the opposite side (receptionists, customer service representatives, nurses, etc.) politely and with grace. As I said before, quite often the people who you have to interface with cannot change the bigger picture. Treating them with respect an courtesy shows the love of Christ and sometimes will even get them on your side.

I am ”between jobs” currently.  Our money is running low and bills are coming soon.  I know that God is at work in my life.  I have seen Him at work before. 
Although I get uneasy at the, “last minute” intervention, I know that it will be there for me.  He is a wonderful God.  He knows the circumstances we each face and is at work in all our lives.  He will bring us through.  He said he would.

First of all I would like to thank you for your blog posts. I’m a young product manager still learning the job and I’ve found your posts to be most helpful and resourceful. At first I thought that your posts would only help me on my job but I’ve found help from them on my personal life. This post got me to think that I will write a reply. It took a couple of months to write a reply but here it goes.

The reason I wanted to write a reply was that at the moment when I read this I was waiting for something to show that will my and my spouse’s seven year relationship continue or end. At the beginning of 2011 we realized that all was not well in our relationship and we started to see a relationship counsellor. It helped a lot but after six months it started to show that we’re going nowhere. Then we decided to move apart and wait another six months to see what would come. I had been living by myself for about a month when your post came and from that I got some extra power to carry on.

I had read your previous post about when something bad happens and you adviced then not to think “why me?” but “what will this make possible?” and with that in my mind and this post I changed my way of thinking. I was pretty messed up about the moving apart but I managed to change my thinking every time it started to look bad. I realized that now I can do everything I like and I don’t have to ask anyone for a “permission” or try to get the schedule working. I also thought that there has to be a reason for this and found comfort in that.

So thank you Michael for your posts and giving so good advice in life and work. Wishing you and your family all the best.

Sincerely yours,
Heikki