Last night around 6:00 my daughter sent me this (unedited) text:
Im back stage. Should be going on for my monoogue in about an hour. I feel good. Dont text me back please:):) call you when I get home. Im having ice cream and cake for dinner and watching breakfast and tiffanys and sleeping in till 8 yay Abby
I had known that Abby, a theatre performance major, had her "cattle call" audition last night--the initial audition for all the plays and musicals in this year's line up at her college. I had been praying for her all day. I had even texted her:
Hope you have a splendid day. Praying for you all day! Love, Mom
No response.
and later
How has your day been?
No response.
and finally
Did your car start?
Yeah.
But I had received no communication from Abby about her frame of mind, her nerves, etc. I was anxious to hear about the auditions, but I had been told in no uncertain terms to ...wait.
So I waited. I sat with the phone next to me all evening. I carried it with me to the bathroom, to the mail box, to the kitchen, upstairs to change clothes, to the office, to the back porch.
And I prayed. Over and over. Asking God to grant Abigail peace and favor and clarity of mind and favor and strength and favor and good voice and favor.
And when my husband came home from his meeting I told him all I knew thus far: that "yeah," her car had started (the battery had died last week and we never determined why...). And then we waited together, anxious every time one of us would get a text or the phone would ring.
I grew tired. It was almost 10:00 and she had said she'd be done by around 8:00. It was past my bed time and I longed to climb the stairs to my bedroom. But I waited instead.
Finally, a little after 10:00, Abigail called, breathless and with that sweet little lilt in her voice, the one I always hope to hear when I answer her calls, but you never know...
"I rocked my monologue! And I got through my song just fine; it wasn't great or anything, but I did really well and they can tell I put effort into it and took it seriously and I really think it was pretty good. But I absolutely rocked the monologue. I cried! On stage in my monologue I actually cried and I feel just really..."
"Wait," I try to interrupt. "Did you want to cry? Did you mean to cry?"
Long story short, yes, she did. And she rocked her monologue!
***
This morning I read Isaiah 64:4 during my quiet time:
From of old no one has heard
or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides You,
who acts for those who wait for Him.
Isaiah 64:4 (Italics added)
God acts on behalf of those who wait. He rewards our waiting. But not just any kind of waiting.
Usually when we wait for something...like a package from Amazon or a check we earned or the dinner we ordered at a restaurant or book we've requested at the library, we just wait...passively, even forgetfully, not even thinking about it often until something jars our memory that it is on its way.
But the kind of waiting referenced in Isaiah 64:4 is an active waiting. It requires that as we wait we also anticipate, long for, make room for, think about, and get ready for.
It's the kind of waiting I did last night as I waited for Abby to call me with the results of her audition.
But remember, Abby also texted me: Dont text me back please:):) If I had texted her back I would have interrupted the audition at best, interrupted her train of thought and concentration at worst.
Here's what I found written beside Isaiah 64:4 in my handwriting in my Bible:
When I act, God has to wait;
When I wait, God will act.
Waiting for God can be difficult. But instead of looking at those frequent seasons of waiting on God as laborious, fruitless spans of time, use the waiting time. Use it to pray, to anticipate, to make room for, to prepare for, to dream, to lean closer to God, to imagine. But remember, He is capable of and often "guilty" of doing far more than we could ever hope or imagine.
Are you waiting on God to do something right now? If you are, hang in there! He's up to something! But if you're not...why not? Labels: Abigail, faith, prayer, waiting
