I could really use some good news right now.

Outside, there is a howling blizzard, and it’s not even the middle of April . . . it’s LATE April. The wind is freezing, the roads are awful, there is snow as far as the eye can see when just a week ago, it felt like summer.

We’ve been waiting ages to hear back about Steve’s job. It’s feeling like forever, and each time the phone rings we almost have a heart attack, only to find out . . . it’s somebody else altogether. I feel like a dog that gets excited at every coming car, and then is depressed to find out it’s not their owner, just some dude in a random Toyota.

Hangdog.

A few things and a few things only are keeping me going.

One is . . . the knowledge that spring always comes. It says that in Ecclesiastes.

Another is . . . that waiting is something the Lord seems to want us to do. A lot. Often. And if that’s the case, then I have to “set my face like flint” (thanks to my mom, a favourite expression of hers from Hannah Whitall Smith) and just keep going, day in and day out.

I’ve been reading a lot about waiting lately. I take that as a sign that the Lord is just asking us to wait. To wait for spring, to wait for the right job or circumstances, to wait for his timing, which is unfathomable. Each time I think I’ve guessed it, “OK, we’ve waited long enough! He’s going to let us know now!” I get nothing.

Because I can’t guess it. I shouldn’t even try.

Waiting is hard, but it can be dynamic. It “flexes the spiritual muscles”, according to Catherine Marshall. It tests us – our strength, our stamina, our faith in God. It forces us to give up anxiety, to give up control, to put things in God’s hands and then to wait for “the peace that passes understanding” because we need it. Waiting is not doing nothing. On the contrary, it is a powerful force, but one that we can’t see. And that’s why it is so frustrating!

Bottom line: (and thanks to my sister who sent this to me) “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” Psalm 27 vs 13 – 14.