Waiting. It brings with it short-term and long-term ramifications. There is the man who stews over his flight being cancelled, and there is the woman who wonders if her cancer will return. What is harder than watching your two daughters wait?

I remember the “Not Again!” look of despair on her face. Since we were told that our youngest daughters lab results had improved, we moved ahead with “The Test”.  The nurse rubbed a small amount of peanut butter on Abby’s bottom lip. Her lips enlarged. She had waited years before being tested again in hopes that she would be free from her Peanut and Tree Nut allergies. She was not out of the woods. More than discouraged, we walked beside her then and now; hoping, praying and waiting for some vaccine. In the meantime, we keep EpiPens available in case she has a reaction, so she will not go into Anaphylactic Shock.      

Off and on for years, our oldest daughter struggled to swallow food without choking or throwing up. It took an upper Endoscopy procedure to reveal she had Eosinophilic Esophagitis, which is a chronic, allergic inflammatory disease of the esophagus. After she had that procedure a lengthy allergy test revealed she also had multiple food allergies even though she had no outward symptoms.  The foods she had been eating were making her esophagus shrink, hence causing the difficulty swallowing so her esophagus had to be stretched. Even though today she is now able to swallow after also radically changing her diet, there still is no cure.  

I HATE WAITING!  I do not welcome it, but I have learned it is part of my journey and yours. Way before I became a parent, the longest and hardest period of time I waited was 10 years, as I prayed for a wife.  I thought something was wrong with me since most of my college buddies got hitched right after graduation. I tried to make it happen, but a broken engagement and a stomach ulcer made me stop and wait.  

During this time, I was a book buyer for a book store and I had the privilege of taking books home at night and returning them in the morning unscathed. I came across an obvious titled book called Waiting.  Author Ben Patterson writes: “I winced in pain as I looked at my bloodied knuckles. In a rage, I had slammed my fist into the dashboard of my Volkswagen as I drove home from our last date together. “Five years!” I screamed into the headlining of the automobile. That’s how long I had dated her, waiting and hoping that one day we would be married. Now it was over.”

Been there. Felt that.  I kept reading. Patterson continued: “Show me a person who has had no struggle with waiting, whose faith has known no swings between victory and defeat, and I’ll show you a person who has never really trusted God with his or her life.” What are you waiting for?

pictures courtesy of “Nelson & His Nikon”.