Waiting

When a manuscript is off to my agent or a publisher for review it's a waiting game. Sometimes a looooooong waiting game (or not really, it just feels that way, ha!). And it feels like I'm just sitting around, obsessively checking my email for any news.

And the waiting game always brings to mind that I once heard that waiting is not a passive activity. We think that when we are waiting for something, we have to just sit there and do nothing but hang out until things change. But that is not what God uses times of waiting for. Times of waiting are really times of preparation.

While I'm waiting to hear back about a manuscript, I can be working on my next one. And the manuscript the publisher is looking over is bought, then great! I have my next book ready to roll right after it (this is the strategy my agent and I are working on right now. Fingers crossed for a series!). And if it's rejected, that time of waiting was not wasted. It's time I used to hone my skill and make my next manuscript a better story.

I was talking with a friend about this who is going through an ugly time in her marriage. We talked about how this time of waiting for her husband to get the help he needs doesn't mean nothing is happening in their marriage. It's a time God can use to grow her closer to Him, to really slow down and feel His presence, to learn more about God's faithfulness in His promises to us. It's a time she can learn to be a wife with patience and compassion for her husband, and a stronger mother for her children.

Our God isn't a God of waste. "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). If we love God, and are trying to serve Him, He is going to use that time of waiting to work things together for His purpose. And His purpose is always good. His purpose is to grow us closer to Him, to bring glory to Him. Sometimes we can't see that in the drudgery of waiting, but God is always at work even in the waiting.