STUCK: Waiting to Be Remembered

Waiting to be remembered is some of the hardest waiting you will ever do. It’s maddening because it is completely out of your hands. Sure, you could manipulate things or bug a person to death. But then you can’t trust the results. Did they really want to or were they just trying to appease you? It’s painful because it feels like God has forgotten you too. After all, isn’t he big enough and powerful enough to bring you to mind?

In the moment, it feels like we are waiting on another person to make the offer. Waiting for them to remember me and call me. I’m stuck and waiting for other people to do their part so that I can make it to where I want to go. It feels like we are waiting on a person, but in reality we are waiting on God. We are waiting for God to bring us to mind, for God to make the connection, for God to remind them that I am here – that I need something.

Joseph had to wait to be remembered too. He was in prison, serving time for something he didn’t do. He helped out the wine taster by interpreting his dream. The only thing he asked for in return was to be remembered. But the wine taster forgot…for two years. But then, when the time was right, when Joseph was needed, not by wine tasters and bakers but by the Pharaoh himself, God brought Joseph to the mind of the steward. God ushered Joseph into a relationship with the most powerful man in earth in that region.

Hannah prayed and asked God to remember her and not forget when she was at the temple in Shiloh. When she returned home, the Bible says, “the Lord remembered her,” and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then she remembered her promise to the Lord and lent her son to Lord to serve in the temple and become the prophet Samuel.

Waiting to be remembered is difficult. Sometimes you may feel forgotten like Joseph or cast aside like Hannah. But God remembers you. He has the next step waiting. He sees not just the next step, but your final step. When it feels like you are waiting for someone, remember that you are really waiting on God. Keep your eyes open and join him in his work, wherever that may lead. He will remember you.

Stuck: Stop Looking for the Key

I have realized that I spend a lot of time in my metaphorical prison looking for a key.  I’ve looked under every rock, and checked every brick in the wall.  I’ve gazed out the window and plotted impossible escape plans.  The escape plans usually require going back to my Ice Queen ways and using force to get what I want.  I could kick the door down and force my way out.  But then what.  I’m pretty sure I would end up right back where I started.  I would either have to keep running and pushing or fall to my knees, surrender and end up back where I started.  I’d rather skip the fighting part and just live surrendered in prison.

But still I try to figure out a way to escape.  Maybe there is one more lesson I have to learn.  Maybe there’s an unconfessed sin lurking in the dark.  If I can just find it and bring it out into the light, the door would open.  Maybe I haven’t met the right person.  How can I meet the right person?  Where do I need to go?  Who do I need to talk to who can get me where I want to be?  Maybe I’m just not happy or content enough.  Maybe if I can figure out how to change my heart and my mind, I could go free.

But I’m coming to see that there is only one key, only one way out of this place where I’m stuck.  God has the key.  He has to open the door from the outside in his good and perfect time.  He’s not waiting for me to magically figure something out.  He already knows when the timing will be perfect.  He already knows the day of the end of my sentence when the work of the suffering will be accomplished, and he is anxiously waiting for me on the other side.

But waiting is so hard.  The crazy thing about this prison is that he is not just on the outside; he is here with me on the inside.  He is not just the person who holds the key; he’s the person who holds my peace.  He is my peace; he is
the key.

It’s just really hard to stop trying to find my own key.

What have you been doing to try to find you own key, to make your own way out?