While we wait for the good to happen.

     If you are like me, you wait for the good stuff to happen in your life and the lives of those around you.  We are a people focused on what "will happen" versus focusing on what "has happened."  That isn't wrong, nor is it right.  Waiting is what's wrong.  By waiting for this or that, good or bad, to happen we are often immobilized and do nothing.  Apathy sets in and we relinquish our dreams and ambitions all because we are "waiting for the good to happen."  Should we dare to live in the present with the lessons learned from the past; we set ourselves up to do what we need to do today and see the future formed by those actions.  Why don't we get on with life?  There are many diverse reasons or excuses we have developed over the eons that all reflect a lack of faith in God and a lot of faith in what won't be.  Since the "won't be" is so prevalent in our lives and the lives of those we know, it's but a small jump to join the masses of no vision.  As the Bible says, "without a vision, the people perish."
     Our lives are full of examples of not "waiting" if we would only examine them for a moment.  We don't "wait" to breath.  If we did, the results would not be good.  Breathing is an automatic response directed by the firing between cells in the brain that regulate so many things "automatically" in our bodies that cannot wait for us to control.  The beating of our heart, the blinking of our eyes, the spontaneous healing of wounds, and the ability to shut down and sleep are all examples of events in our lives that cannot "wait."  Thinking also comes into that category.  For some there is more brain activity than others.  But, thinking does happen all the time.  Even during sleep our mind is not silent and doesn't "sleep".  We have over 400 dreams a night according to studies.  I don't even remember more than one!
     Waiting is one of the answers to our prayers that God gives us.  He says "Wait." and we hear "do it my myself."  "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."  Sound familiar?  In this world of comparison, we are constantly looking at others and saying, "Why no me?"  Maybe because God has told you or I to "wait."  Whenever we hear "wait" from God and make something happen anyway; we are resigned at the very least to settle for second best.  This can be seen in our "less than" lives and choices.  And so we feel let down, abandoned, and ignored.  We feel sorry for ourselves and a "pity party" ensues.  WAIT!  "Good things come to those who wait."  Isn't that what we want to have happen?  Don't we want good things to happen to those we love and to those we care about?  Yet, when God says "wait", we hear: God doesn't love me.  God doesn't tell us to wait for good because good has already happened.  God wants us to remember the good and not live in the past.  In so doing, we can focus on the good that is going to happen because God loves us and is consistent in that love towards us.  To do anything less would not be from God.  To make the choice to make something happen is not from God.  It's man made.
     I have much to be thankful for.  So do you.  We need to remember that which has blessed our lives in order to develop and maintain a positive frame of mind that carries us through each and every day.  While we know that there are evil and destructive forces around us and in the world, we have a God who has overcome these.  He says that he wants to bless us with all the blessings of Heaven.  Wow!  So, why can't we recognize this?  Because we want God to act and react the way we want and not how God knows is best.  What does God want us to be doing?  He wants us to be living life one day at a time for the glory of God.  Making all of our thoughts, deeds and actions reflective of who He is and not who we think he should be.  When we do this the old is gone and the new takes its place.  It's when we concentrate on doing what He wants that we suddenly find that good has happened.  This doesn't work the other way around.  God is constantly working for the good of us.  That's what the birth, death and resurrection of Christ was and is all about.  So many then, as today, can't see the good in that accomplishment.  However, if we do see the good, we will live with the blessing of another day of life which brings about the good God intended for us.  Even when we don't recognize it.