Waiting for a Placement

"I hate wait."

~Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

Inigo Montoya at the top of the Cliffs of Insanity

Application submitted, interview completed, letters sent, I now am waiting to be placed in Europe. Most likely, I will be in French speaking Europe, so either France, Belgium, or Switzerland. I will probably hear by mid-January simply because right now is the holiday season and everyone is in and out on vacations. But I am realizing, once again, just how impatient a person I am. Like Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, I hate wait.

In the story, Inigo, an expert swordsman, is left at the tops of the Cliffs of Insanity and given very strict instructions. He is told to wait for the Man in Black to make his way to the top and then Inigo is to kill him so that the Man in Black cannot continue following their party. The Man in Black is in a very precarious position, clinging to the cliff and climbing by hand since the rope has been cut. It will probably take him hours to reach the top, by which time he will be weakened from the climb.  Inigo has no patience for that. "I hate wait," he says. Eventually, he offers to help the Man in Black reach the top of the cliffs so they can begin their fight right away.

Throughout the Bible, there are so many examples of God making people wait. Abraham waited for a son, Joseph spent some waiting years in prison, Joshua waited in the desert, even Esther spends years in beauty treatments, and Israel waited for years for their promised Messiah.  Clearly, waiting is something that God builds into a journey because it is an important step. I think God puts us in certain scenarios to see what we will do with our wait. Will we wait patiently like Joseph, gaining favor and recognition? Or will we be impatient like Abraham, doubting that God has a plan?  

Perhaps, like Inigo, we will even invite our troubles to join us. We rush our time of waiting convinced that if we just start doing something we will end our time of trial. And yet, the Man in Black ends up leaving Inigo unconscious in the dust with Inigo's mission uncompleted. I wonder how many times we miss out on blessings because we are convinced that waited time is wasted time. 

So, despite my impatient nature, I am trying to embrace my time of waiting. I am trying to see it as just another important step on my journey. I am praying for God to reveal to me what He would have me do with my wait.

"For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have we wait for it patiently." ~Romans 8:24-5