Taking the Long Road

Did you know that when I first began my Weight Loss journey I would pray that God would make me skinny? Every night I would lay my head down to go to sleep and I would pray, "Lord, please make me skinny. Let me wake up in the morning and be thin and healthy. Amen." I knew that if God wanted to answer my prayers He could. Could you imagine how awesome/scary it would be to wake up one morning instantly skinny!! God has the power to do that. You're probably wondering, if He has that power why doesn't He do that? Because we get to know Him during the wait.

My friend Michelle shared this poem on her blog "The Musings of a Journeyer". She said it "stuck a cord in her heart". After I finished reading the poem, it had struck a cord in my heart as well. I'm pretty sure that I have read this poem before, in college. God probably used it to encourage me then and He is using it to encourage me now and for that I am very thankful.

I have been trying to wait on the Lord and trust Him with a lot of details in my life, that He has not revealed to me yet. It's not easy to wait. But this poem so beautifully reminds me WHY there are times in our lives when God keeps the details to Himself, makes us wait on Him, and directions us to take the longer road..

In the book of Isaiah it says that it is while we wait on the Lord the our strength is renewed!! Some many times I have seen waiting as a waste of my time. I wish God would tell me what I need to do, so that I can get on with it. But that is not true at all! When we are waiting on the Lord, it is NEVER a waste of time. I am so thankful for the work that God has done in my life through my weight loss. I would not have been changed on the inside if I just woke up one morning skinny. My prayer is that I will become more thankful in those times of waiting. I pray that I will not waste time that God has set aside for me to know Him better.

Rejoice in the journey!!

Please take the time to read this beautiful poem:

"Wait"
Source: The Musings of a Journeyer

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried; quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.
I plead and I wept for a clue to my fate, and the Master so gently said, "Child, you must wait."
"WAIT? You said 'wait,'" my indignant reply. "Lord, I need answers. I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard? By faith I have asked and am claiming your Word.
My future and all to which I can relate hangs in the balance, and YOU tell me 'Wait?'
I'm needing a 'yes,' a go-ahead sign, or even a 'no' to which I can resign.
And Lord, I've been asking! I need a reply!"
Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate as my Master replied once again, "You must wait."
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut, and grumbled to God, "So I'm waiting...for what?"
He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes wept with mine, and He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun. I could raise the dead, cause the mountains to run.
All you seek, I could give, and pleased you would be. You would have what you want...
But you wouldn't know Me.
You'd not know the depth of my love for each saint; you'd not know the power that I give to the faint;
You'd not learn to see through the clouds of despair; you'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there;
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me when darkness and silence were all you could see;
You'd never experience the fullness of love, as the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove;
You'd know that I give and I save (for a start), but you'd not know the depth of the beat of my heart;
The glow of My comfort late in the night, the faith that I give when you walk without sight,
The depth that's beyond getting just what you asked of an infinite God, who makes what you have last.
You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee, what it means that 'My grace is sufficient for thee.'
Yes, your dreams and desires overnight would come true,
But oh the loss! If I lost what I'm doing in you!
So be silent, My child, and in time you will see that the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.
And though often My answers seem terribly late, My most precious answer of all is still, 'WAIT.'"