2017/2/12
What is the longest you have waited for something to happen in your life?
I'd take a gander to say that most you have not really waited that long for something to happen in your life, or to get the thing you wanted to have most.
Atlanta was crazy about making it to the super bowl. That they were finally able to get there again since 1999. The opportunity as something finally happening.
Another example of someone who waited for a long time. Jihyo from Twice. For those who know, she waited 10 years to be able to debut in Twice, one of the most exciting life events for her in her life.
If you ever listen to Jihyo live, you can see the fruits of her labor. She is a really good singer. Do I think she is the most amazing singer in Korea? No and I don't think that's what her dream is, but she definitely accomplished what she had set her sights out to do, and that was to debut as a singer in a girl group. And yeah it took her 10 years to finally do so, but she had the patience and preparation to stick it out for that amount of time.
What does it mean to wait? I can't say that I can really waited that long for things, especially when compared to how long others have waited. I'm currently "waiting" for marriage. Waiting for the job that has everything that I want from it. Waiting for God to show me my life calling. Waiting for an opportunity to speak loud and proud about my faith. Waiting and a lot of it. And some of these things I've been waiting for for years. But if there is anything that I have learned about waiting, it's that it's not idle. It's not still, or stagnant, or stale. It moves.
I say this because everyone around me seems to think that waiting is this inactive thing. Something that takes a lot of effort, but somehow is a very passive action. At JCA we had a speaker come to Quest who shared about his life experiences, except he described waiting as an action. Always acting in a way that would prepare him for the next stage in life. And the most amazing part was that he did this uncertain of what the next step would be.
So many people are confused as how to describe the current problem with millennials like myself. I'm not claiming to have any answers, and definitely struggle with some of the same exact things that my millennial peers do as well. I want to change the world, and have grown up my entire life being told that I was supposed to be doing great and amazing things as soon as I get my opportunity. But quickly, these months of work has shown me that that is definitely not true.
Some people work really hard for a really long time to get to the place that they want to be. Some doing the same thing for so long that it becomes comfortable. For the Falcons, it was going season in and season out either not being able to make it to the Superbowl, let alone making it very deep into the playoffs. For Jihyo, it was being just a "trainee" for a decade before finally making her debut into Twice. And as individuals we can get sick of what we are doing. It get's repetitive, tiring, and hopeless. But if you have a dream, a goal, a place in life that you want to get to, then work hard for it. But never stop being ready. Ready at any moment to stake your claim and say that it is your time to rise to the challenge given to you.
Right now that's where I am in life. The work I'm doing is great, and the environment I am living in is satisfactory, but there is a work I am looking for and a place I want to live. I'm waiting for my opportunity. But I'm not just going to sit around and just "do my job." It would be a shame of me to just sit around and wait for my opportunities, only to watch them pass by because I wasn't ready. Being in a state of waiting does not mean that you are not ready for what is to come, so in my state of waiting, I am also preparing myself for what is to come in front of me. So I will close with an analogy that I think describes what it looks like to wait.
Lakes don't move. Lakes are a body of water that stay in the same place, because nothing passes through it. Sometimes we live our lives that way. Idle and waiting. Isolated and away from the body of water that we want to be in, which is the ocean. But rivers move. They flow, they crash, they confront the obstacles in from of them and force new ways to move. That's just how rivers are. I think for many of us we think of waiting as this big lake that doesn't move. It doesn't change and it doesn't transform until an external force, like a river, comes to change its circumstances. But who are we to say that we should sit around and do nothing while we wait. Why not be the river, maneuvering and making our way through current and stream, still waiting, but waiting for the end point that we all know is surely coming at the Grand ocean. Be river, not a lake.