Wait Isn’t A Four-Letter Word by Alice H. Murray

Wait Isn’t A Four-Letter Word

by Alice H. Murray

 

“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord”

(Psalm 27:14, NIV).

 

No schooling or conference training prepared me for one of the biggest challenges of being a writer—waiting. Selecting a viable topic, crafting a well-written work, and formatting it properly for the intended recipient pales in comparison with the patience required of me to wait.

Unfortunately, writers experience a persistent holding pattern. When will inspiration strike? When will the right words come to mind? When will the required techniques be mastered? The answer? Wait for it.

In time the answers come, and a creative piece finally comes together. Progress at last! The writer submits the finished piece and must sit back (and sit, and sit, and sit) awaiting a response. Sometimes one never comes, leaving the writer in eternal limbo. Even that long-awaited, positive response requires waiting. For a traditional publishing contract, the release date stretches WAY out into the future. Two years seemed like an eternity for me to wait for publication of my first book.

But how sweet it was when the dream became a reality. And God’s timing truly is perfect. Previous rejections enhanced the joy of my later acceptances and publication. Waiting provided me time to gain experience, learn, and network. “Wait” isn’t necessarily a four-letter word.

Our faith life, just like writing, inevitably includes waiting. Psalm 27:4 conveys the idea in no uncertain terms, “wait for the Lord.” His timing, like a publisher’s, rarely aligns with our own. Why? Because we want things NOW, not later. But our Heavenly Father knows best about timing, often requiring us to wait.

The Bible is replete with instances of required waiting. The Israelites tarried forty years to enter the Promised Land, seventy years for the Babylonian exile’s end, and 483 years (per the Daniel prophecy) for the Messiah’s death. These periods of waiting ended in God’s time and to his children’s benefit.

Given God’s biblical track record, shouldn’t we Christian writers trust him to bring to pass the writing developments he has in store for us at the appropriate time? Wait isn’t a four-letter word when God is in control.

Lord, forgive my impatience. Help me to wait on you and to trust your timing. Amen.

 

Alice H. Murray is a lawyer by profession and a writer by passion. She is a staff writer for www.adoption.com and has written articles for legal professional magazines, her local paper, and a missions magazine. Alice’s work has been published in a Chicken Soup For the Soul book and in four books of the Short And Sweet compilation book series.