Lone Chairs, Mailboxes and Moments of Waiting
Waiting. It’s a word that none of us love. Just the word ‘WAIT’ implies something that is unpleasant.
Most of us have learned to never pray for patience. I mean, who does that?
Every evening that we are here at the country house, we walk for a mile or two around sunset. There are a few pastures that have an unobstructed view of the western horizon so we usually take a moment or two to take in the amazing beauty of the sunset. God’s paintbrush is better than any AI generated piece of art.
As we walk, we notice things. Along this country road, there is a lone metal chair by a mailbox that has captured my attention.
Lone metal chair
When I pass by that chair, something in me feel the need to stop and think about this chair. I have questions. a lot of questions about this chair.
Why is it there?
Who put it there?
When did they put the chair by the mailbox by the road?
Was it originally placed there as a bus stop for school kids maybe?
Does someone sit in the chair by the mailbox to await the daily mail?
Why that chair? It’s rusted and seems so forgotten.
Why does it seem abandoned by life?
abandoned chair
Many times in our life’s walk with Jesus, we have chairs such as this one. Chairs that we’ve placed along the road that have been forgotten and are rusted and sorta sunk into the dirt.
What’s your forgotten chair? What have you placed along life’s road that you have forgotten about?
Neglected? Alone? Forgotten? Lonely? By yourself along life’s road?
This chair makes me feel a sadness. Perhaps a wistfulness. Maybe a melancholy? What used to be and now isn’t?
How about those unresolved griefs in your heart?
How are you moving forward with the hearts of war or hearts of peace? Did you find the time to listen to the audio from The Anatomy of Peace by the Arbinger Institute? Here’s a link to find that last post about peace.
As you read this short post, consider your chairs that are still in the waiting.
Kim Haney wrote an excellent book, The Waiting Room.
I read the book a few years back. Wow. This abandoned chair along the road makes me feel like I oughta read it again and soon.
She writes about the process of waiting in a way that almost makes you like the grueling time spent in the waiting.
@allecgomes
If you’re waiting, just know that you are not alone. So many people seem to be in the waiting right now. Seems like every conversation I hear, the words come around to….waiting.
Waiting on a financial breakthrough….
Waiting on a promise from God’s Word to be fulfilled….
Waiting on God for a miracle healing….
Waiting on God to come through on a lifetime of faithful promises….
Job 23:3 says this in the NKJV, “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come to His seat!”
Verse 4. “I would present my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.”
Verse 8. “Behold, I go forward but He is not there., and backward, but I cannot perceive Him;”
Verse 9: “when He acts on the left, I cannot behold him; He turns to the right, and I cannot see Him.”
Verse 10: “But He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”
Verse 11: “My foot has held fast to His path; I have kept His way and not turned aside.”
Sit down in your chair and wait. Wait on the promises of God.
Wait on that miracle. Wait on that financial provision. Wait on that promise.
If we wait, we will eventually come forth as gold. Not sure if that’s golden bars, edible sprinkles on a cupcake, gold fillings in our teeth or what. But, I know the promises of God are true and just.
In Daniel chapter ten, there’s a phrase that always captures my attention. The Lord tells Daniel that the message was true but the time was long. Daniel was terrified by what the vision represented but yet he was faithful to the waiting and he was a captive in a foreign land.
If the time is long for you, just keep waiting by the road. Eventually, something will come down that road. Your promise will eventually show up. Keep your eyelids focused and your gaze facing forward to the road.
We’re all in this thing called LIFE together. In community. If things are hard right now, reach out. To a friend, to use or someone. Chair waiting is longer if you’re trying to do this all by yourself.
Take a walk. Read a fun book of fiction. Listen to a new playlist. Schedule a coffee at a new cafe!
Find a road with a sunset. Play with a toddler. God is in all of it.
