Life definitely has its variety of seasons.
I'm continuously learning a lot about waiting, patience, and probably more importantly how the Lord sees my life's daily, mundane, agonizingly frustrating means/tasks = to the end. The means (ie, the journey) IS the end - those are the juicy parts of life that end up being the significant & transformational parts (or just as meaningful as the goals that were realized later)...I learn more about the Lord and who He is in my journey rather than if I had no struggle and instantly had perfect success at whatever I was doing! ...similar to the caterpillar's journey/struggle to become a butterfly. If anyone cuts the cocoon early, the caterpillar ain't gonna have the strength to fly...And the Lord loves me way more than a little worm! Yahoo!
This season of waiting is seemingly super-glued to Stephen and me. Waiting on our house to sell in Tulsa, waiting on the house in Knoxville to be liveable, waiting on my muscles to adapt to my new healthy body/new bike positions/new aerobic work... Each of those categories have multiple subcategories under them that involve sloth-like slow happenings and it's down-right refining to choose to trust the Lord & follow Him in the midst of foggy uncertainty.
It's true that in our desert seasons in life, we're learning lots of treasures that we'd never learn if we hadn't been locked in a waiting hold for all this time. But, boy this life would be depressing if we were only out to seek success by the world's definitions. FAIL!
Although I'm not completely free of the waiting zone for training/racing, I'm feeling healthy (!!) and can swim, bike, & run...and even sweat - this is a good thing for a professional triathlete! ;) The start line is in sight!
Thankful to the Lord for all His gifts, even the not-so-fun ones!
bethany
