Last week’s posts on waiting kept getting longer and longer, but here is the finale to the waiting posts.
As a teenager I repeatedly heard this famous phrase, “True Love Waits.” Which is a good phrase, I suppose. It implied that true love would wait for the perfect person and then they together would wait until marriage to have “the sex.” So when a Christian 16 year old was told that true love waits we expected them to keep their hormones in check for roughly another 5-7 years until married. The question is, “What are we supposed to do while waiting?” Well, no one ever said what we were to do while waiting because I suppose the plan was that we would (A) finish high school, (2) go to college, and while there (iii) date and find the perfect person. The reason no one ever explained what we should do while waiting is that no youth pastor expected the wait to go past college graduation. So for those of us who have been waiting for a much lengthier time I ask again, “What the heck are we supposed to do while waiting?”
Well, here’s a short list of things to do:
Note: I realize that “True Love Waits” is referring more to the waiting of sex but that is a completely separate blog. You’ll just have to wait until I decide to get around to that one. In the meantime practice a little self control and focus on these other things.
1. Live in the moment
Being single is not a holding pattern that you’re in. There isn’t a pause button on life. This is your life – so live it to its fullest!
2. Stay Focused
Just as the watchmen (see part 2) had to stay focused on the job in front of them you too have things to do. Don’t dream so much about the future that you forget to focus on today. Stay focused on what matters – your relationship with God, your family, your friends.
3. Think Big
What are you waiting for? Do you want to finish your degree? Go back to school? Travel the world? Learn a new skill? Then do it. Being single gives you a great opportunity to do these things so take advantage of that.
4. Make things happen
If, as I said in part 2, you’re done waiting and getting married and having a family are at the top of your list for 2012 then stop talking about it and put yourself out there. If you don’t work with any eligible people, if you’re the only single at your church, and if after work you go straight home then chances are this time next year nothing will have changed in your life. So review the list in #3 and meet some new people because even if they aren’t single they probably know people who are. Get out and meet people and see what happens.
4. Enjoy life
Don’t become bitter about the life God has given you. Number one way to stay single forever – be bitter and make sure no one likes to spend more than 3 seconds in your presence. Learn to be happy with who you are and where you are in life. If you don’t like how your life is going then change what you can, but learn to say with the apostle Paul, “I have learned the secret to being content in any and every situation.”
Bottom line – maybe true love does in fact wait, but your life doesn’t. I don’t really know what to do while waiting except to live my life. So I encourage you to also make a life for yourself that you want and then enjoy it.
For example: I graduated Bible College single – who does that?! So I moved to another country for a few years where I learned a lot about myself, allowed God to develop character in me and teach me things I wouldn’t have learned any other way, and made life-long friends. Then I made up a job that would allow me to travel all over Europe. Along the way I have come to embrace the life that God has given me because it’s ridiculously awesome and full of people, friends, rich experiences, and encounters.
So again I say: Don’t wait – live.
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