Patience

I hate waiting.

I'm also not Alyssa. I'm her husband who has hijacked her blog. (Don't tell)

Our house has been on the market for 18 days and we've had 6 showings (although they've stopped altogether recently). While to some, or even most, this would be good or encouraging, I fight frustration and depression over the fact we've not sold yet. Someone reminded me that it takes an average of 130 days to sell right now. My response is to ponder drinking...

The reality is, I HATE waiting. And I don't think patience for the sake of patience is inherently righteous. There is room for debate there, but I really think that patiences as a righteousness blanket probably has some holes. It's not good to be hasty and miss the way, but once you've figured out the way, lets get on with it!

Anyway, in the midst of all of this I've walked in and out of faith several times as to my view on selling our house. I was talking with the Lord last night though and was just struck by the reality of this:

God (ironically in His patience), has been unbelievably tender and purposeful in all of the timing, conversations and events leading up to us moving. I'm honestly blown away and humbled by it. The obvious extension (which Alyss reminds me of) is that He isn't stopping now by this 'incredibly long' period of time we're having to wait for our house to sell.

But I want to push on this thought -- God, the creator of every atom in the universe, the engineer of the human body, the inventor of gravity and the atomic forces, knows me. He doesn't just know of me, but he intimately knows me. My weaknesses. My personality. I think of PS 139 -- "... you discern my thoughts from afar ... even before a word is on my tongue, you know it altogether."

Also, God doesn't just know of me, or know facts about me. HE is purposely focused and invested in engaging with and discipling me.

I think of Adam - God could have just said 'dude, you need a wife' - but instead he had him look through all the animals first. Why!? Because he had to walk him through a process. Because God doesn't just bark down orders telling us what to do - he works with us, 'like a father with his children, ...exhorting...encouraging...'

There are a lot of times I hear platitudes about 'God is in control', or 'God has a plan'....turns out that they might be true, even if we've reduced them to that.

By the way, if anyone wants a house, I'm selling one...