Posted by Ron Cook

Ron and his wife Rodetta have been married for 41 years. They have actively served the Lord together in ministry during the entire time and are co-founders of Care for Pastors. Ron ministers to hundreds of pastors annually through mentorship, counseling, and by phone. He has been a Pastor for 40 years and understands the stress of ministry, and wants to share his longevity in ministry with other pastors and help them finish well.

Posted by Ron Cook

Topics: For Pastors · Ministry Life

The Blessing of Waiting

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

I am far from an authority on Children’s literature, but I must admit that I enjoy Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss. There are some very practical life lessons throughout the pages, but there is one point where Dr. Seuss and I have a parting of ways. Please indulge me. Dr. Seuss writes:

“You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.

Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked.

A place you could sprain your elbow and chin!

Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare go in?

How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And if you go in, should you turn left or right…or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?

Or go around and sneak in from the behind?

Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space headed,

I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place…”

Some of you are saying “Amen,” preach it, Dr. Seuss. You have come to the dreaded place on your spiritual journey called “The Waiting Place” and you hate this place. You have so much to offer, so many great ideas you want to implement, time is wasting away and you are not getting any younger. Your life is passing before your eyes and here you are, stuck in this most useless place, waiting. Just how long is God going to keep you in this place?

God has something to say about the Waiting Place. “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you: he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!” Isaiah 30:18

What many believe to be a useless place, God calls a place of blessing. It is in the waiting place, where distractions are removed so God can begin doing His work in us. It is in the Waiting Place that often God makes His presence, His grace and compassion so very real.

If you find yourself in the Waiting Place, stop looking at it as a useless place, but as a place of blessing. “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” II Chronicles 16:9.

The doors for the next phase of your spiritual journey may stay closed until you see the Waiting Place as a place of blessing and not a useless place.