Enjoying the "Process"

I am in this bittersweet season right now where I have felt clear direction from the Lord on a couple of areas of my life, but it is requiring some patience and waiting. Which, if I’m being transparent is not something that I excel at. I bet there are many of you out there that feel the same way. Sometimes it can be challenging to try and picture our lives past the concept of the “next big thing.” I find myself often setting up goals for myself based on these events in life. “I will take my schooling seriously once I actually start college.” “I will lose some weight after the wedding.” “I will save up some money for X vacation.” While none of these statements are bad in themselves, there is a key area that we are missing. We need to enjoy the process. There is something so beautiful about seeing Gods handiwork through “the process.”

We live in a world of constant change which means without us maybe even realizing, we start to change as well. But there is great news, we are so much more than the current season we are in. This is why it is so important to have our identity in Christ and Christ alone. If we try and define ourselves any other way it ends up leaving us unfulfilled. And when our identity is inevitably stripped from us, we end up feeling completely lost and alone. We do not want to miss out on all that the Lord is preparing for us simply because we are afraid of change.

The following passage from Ecclesiastes brings me a great deal of comfort, ”For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.“

‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭8‬ ‭ESV‬‬

If you even asked me 5 years ago if this is even remotely what I thought my life would look like at this stage in my life then, I would have laughed. Which is the absolute truth. But the best part about it is that my life is so much better than I ever thought was possible. I heard a quote recently in a podcast that summed it up perfectly for me, it read, "The safest place to be is in the center of God's will."

Lord, thank you for the “process.”