Five Minute Friday prompt this week is—PARK. This largely unedited “rough draft” form of writing stretches this perfectionist, in the best of ways. I write for five minutes on a given topic. If you’re interested in learning more about 5-Minute Fridays, check out our hostess, Kate Motaung’s site. Or, click on the link at the bottom of this post. As you read my simpler Friday posts, I hope you’ll join in the conversation!
PARK
I pictured 2016 going in a very different direction than it has. I envisioned myself finally moving forward in my dream of being published. Or at least being agented. I had sugar plum visions of that happening early this year and then working with said agent on my book. Readying it for the world.
Silly me. I guess I forgot to consult God’s plans and timing in my dreams.
Instead of moving forward, I’m still parked where I’ve been for the last few years. Unagented. Struggling at times to do the writing. Disillusioned at times.
The thing is? I may not be moving forward externally toward my dream. But God’s been moving in me.
From the torn ACL in January to today, He’s been teaching me a ton.
He’s moved me into a deeper place with Him. I’m not parked in the same spiritual spot I was last year.
He’s teaching me to be honest with Him. To express those ugly emotions that He can handle hearing. And He won’t strike me down for feeling and expressing them.
Sometimes it’s in choosing to be honest with Him that I am freed from chains that have bound me since childhood.
He’s teaching me to wait on Him. Waiting chafes at my spirit some days. I just want it now. (Do you hear the inner toddler in me screaming to get out?)
But it’s in the waiting when I can become still enough to draw near to Him. To hear His whispers of love over me.
He’s teaching me to listen to Him. I’m learning to hear His voice in my days. No, it’s not audible, but I’m learning to hear what it sounds like. Yes, I ignore it sometimes. And then I regret it.
He’s teaching me to trust Him. With my dreams and with every area of my life. His timing is always, always perfect. Even when that means my dream doesn’t move forward in my time frame.
So yes, in some ways I have been parked in the same place. But in the most important ways, I’m moving right into the plans He has for me.
What about you? When have you felt parked in a situation and how did you handle it? What lessons have you learned in the waiting times?
Click to tweet: His timing is always, always perfect.
I’m linking up with Kate Motaung Five Minute Friday—Park.
Jeanne Takenaka 
I think I may be waiting on His timing as well. Funny how things work (or don’t) when we forget to include God in our plans. lol
Hugs,
Melinda (#5 at FMF)
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This sounds bad, Melinda, but I’m kind of glad I’m not the only one who forgets to include God in her plans. 🙂 I hope your waiting time is fruitful. Thankful for you, friend.
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Good truths to unanswered dreams and questions. I’m right along with you. I have this expectations of myself of what to accomplish in a year and I never do. Good thing is knowing that nothing slips through His fingers!
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Bonnie, those expectations sometimes die hard, don’t they? As I grow older, I’m slowly gaining the ability to make fewer expectations and to hold them with a looser hand. 🙂 And yes, I take great comfort in the truth that nothing slips through God’s fingers!
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Great post, Jeanne. I know your time will come; I suspect that God is using the wait time to help you get set up for the overwhelming success that will be yours, and that will change much of your life.
I’ve felt parked in situations that (often of my own choosing) were completely unnatural to me. As a ‘professor’ (I HATE that word) I was so out of my element it was laughable. Loved the teaching, did rather more than OK on the research, and was a bull in a china shop concerning politics.
Unfortunately, academic politics is the reason most people sign up for that kind of job. So I was parked…or more picturesquely, stuck in a gyre in which I was drowning.
How I longed for a sane and normal job…like dynamic entries into a houseful of fanatics stoned to Pluto on khat (a narcotic that makes the user feel both invisible and invincible).
#1 at FMF this week.
http://blessed-are-the-pure-of-heart.blogspot.com/2016/10/your-dying-spouse-222-question-of.html
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Andrew, thank you so much for your encouragement. You’re walking in your gifting again. 😉
I love that you’re wired the way you are. I’m sure your students got a kick out of having you as an instructor . . . after they got used to your serious side. And your definition of a “normal” job? I’ll leave that kind of normal to you. 🙂 Thanks for all you’ve done.
And thank you for making me smile.
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I feel very parked as well, but, like you, am learning so much in my time of quiet contemplation.
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I’m convinced our waiting time is never intended to be wasted by merely waiting. 🙂 I hope your time in the parked position is fruitful, Kadie!
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Oh I know this feeling of being parked. Sometimes I get antsy and sometimes I’m able to enjoy the view.
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Kristin, I’m learning how to enjoy the view. I confess, though, I have plenty of days where I’m just plain antsy. 🙂
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I totally think you can be parked in location or a limbo but be in a different locale in your spirit. I know that’s true of me even from a year ago. A big shift in me though my world was upside down shaken. We do change so much in the wait. I hope these dreams come true for you and soon 🙂
Also, I agree with the statement of the necessity of being honest with God and that He alone can handle our blunt and raw honestly of how we really feel.
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I’m thankful God can (and often does) use the waiting times in our lives to make us more like Jesus, and to draw us closer to Himself. Thank you for your good wishes.
And, I am beyond thankful God can handle my blunt (and sometimes selfish) honesty and emotions. 🙂
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Oh, boy! This really spoke to me today. We share a dream and parking spots next to each other! I’ve been learning some of those same lessons, my friend. God keeps whispering that he’ll be my ‘agent for an agent’ but in HIS time. Meanwhile, I keep working on the background stuff that needs to take place :).
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Anita, I’m thankful I’m parked next to you . . . even if the waiting is sometimes uncomfortable. I’m working the background stuff too. And some of it includes healing. This may come out in a post some day. 🙂 May we work with all diligence and keep seeking God as we work toward our dreams, my friend.
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I’m definitely parked as well–waiting for a job. I hope I can learn from this time as well. Thanks for reminding me of the importance of waiting!
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Alina, waiting for a job can be HARD. So much must be riding on your shoulders. I’m saying a prayer for you today. And I hope that this waiting time will also be fruitful for you.
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Oh man… waiting is so hard –but the more we have to endure waiting seasons, the more we can look back and see what God did while it seemed like He was doing nothing at all, right? Great perspective! Loved your take on Park!
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I think you’re spot on, Karrilee. After we’ve come through waiting seasons, we can often see how God was working. It’s so important to remember that when we’re in the midst of the waiting. Thanks for stopping by, friend!
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Waiting is. . . a time to allow God to set our destination; a trust building time; a time of tears and fears; a learning of God’s powerful love time; Waiting is. . .
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You’re right, Mom. There are waiting times when God resets our destination. Such a good thing to remember. Some of my waiting times have been times where I’ve gotten real and honest with God about how much I disliked what He was doing. But, after He’d moved me on in my journey, I could thank Him because of the work He did in the waiting.
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How difficult it is to wait, and yet how lovely to see the ways in which God is working. I love the thought of realizing that we are not “parked” at the same spot this year as last. God welcomes us as we are, and loves us too much to let us stay there.
Peace.
Patricia (FMF#31)
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Isn’t there hope in that thought, Patricia? Even if things aren’t moving forward on the outward part of us, or in one part of our lives, God is still working inwardly, and I think He’s often preparing us for the next steps of our journey. 🙂
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Jeanne, I just watched an interview between Chip & Joanna Gaines and their pastor (link is on my Facebook page), he talked about dreams. I.E. Life (our dreams); Death;
Resurrection. And how often we are given a huge dream and then we have to let it die and be buried for a bit and then God comes along and resurrects it. I found that so very interesting and a huge confirmation to a dream I had in the 90’s which I have since let die and be buried. I just wonder if God is going to resurrect and bring it back to life? We shall see. Serving Him is never boring, is it? xo I’m not participating in FMF, as I’m fighting through #write31days!!!
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Susan, I’ve heard (and I agree) that there are times when our dreams have to die before they become reality. I’ve found that sometimes I’m holding on so tightly to my dreams that God needs me to surrender them, to let them breathe in His intentions. And He works in me to realign my priorities when it comes to working toward them.
I loved your thoughts. And I hope you’ll share your dream with me one day. 🙂
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jeanne, patience doesn’t come naturally to me either. but i have learned a little over my lifetime through the events like you describe:( impatience and resentment are no fun to live with. learning patience, tho’ difficult, is an easier path than the former…surprisingly.
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Martha, I agree with your words. I don’t like when my kids are impatient or resentful. Why would I imagine they like hanging out with me when I am? Learning patience is by far the best way to operate in families and on our life paths. 🙂 Great words here. 🙂
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So praying for you and so encouraged by your honestly and heart. I’ve been in that parked space and it can be really painful. It’s only in retrospect I saw God’s hand of protection, and how his timing exceeded my own plans. You are such a heartfelt writer, God is doing so much through you.
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Lisa, thank you for those prayers, my friend. The thing God shows me over and over is that His timing is perfect. So, I do the work, and try to wait with diligence and anticipation. 🙂 I so appreciate your encouragement!
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Being in that parked space, that stillness has brought you a peace that resonates through your words, giving many hope in the place they are! What I’ve learned, in that parked space is learning to let go and in that letting go, a freedom I know I would have never found if I had kept striving. Plus, I get to see so many more ‘cars’, details I would have missed just speeding by!
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Lynn, I sense that we’ve both been (and maybe you still are, too?) in that parked space. I agree. Learning to let go . . . of dreams, expectations, even hopes for how it comes to reality is freedom. And I love what you said about how we get to see so many more details when we’re not speeding down our own road. 🙂
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Sometimes we need this reminder, don’t we?
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Yes, Tara, we sure do!
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