Where’s God when I’m waiting on the next Big Thing?

Here I go again — waiting on God to provide the next Big Thing. This time it’s something different though. Fourteen years ago, I was waiting for God to provide a wife. Twelve years ago it was a new job. Three years ago, it was physical healing. A year ago, it was selling my house. This year, I’ve got another Big Thing, and it’s driving me crazy. I don’t want to wait. I want things to come easier than this. Enough with the cliffhangers. Let someone else dangle from the edge. I’d like a happy ending now. I have great…

A lesson in prayer from my daughter’s birthday excitement

August 1, 2020January 25, 2023 Categories: It's About TrustTags: doubt · faith · hope · parenthood · waiting

It was my daughter Layla’s ninth birthday last week, but if you’d asked her, it was more like her birthday season. Five months ago, Layla not only started talking about what gifts she wanted for her birthday— she began developing a meal plan for the big day (donuts, a Lunchable, and tacos). Layla deemed the day before her birthday, “Birthday Eve.” She went around talking about it to anyone who would listen, including a Target cashier, who thrilled Layla by correctly guessing that she was turning nine.

An unexpected answer when I asked God to end suffering in my life

February 3, 2019August 3, 2019 Categories: It's About TrustTags: faith · grace · suffering · waiting

I know someone who’s trapped in a dead-end job right now. He’s been there for years and he’s trying to make the best of it, but realistically, his resume is probably far too stale for him to get a different job for which he’s qualified. I know a woman who has an ongoing chronic condition that doctors can’t fix. You’d never know it if you met her — the embarrassing symptoms, the limitations. She longs for some medical breakthrough that will fix the problem, but there’s little hope for that and for whatever reason, God hasn’t healed her.

My son needed oxygen — and I needed Jesus

October 20, 2018October 20, 2018 Categories: It's About TrustTags: parenthood · sanctification · vulnerability · waiting

Last Friday night, my two-year-old son had a cold that suddenly started getting worse. He began coughing harder and harder, and eventually, he started wheezing. I normally would’ve deferred to my wife on something like this, but she was out of town, so I decided to wait it out. When his breathing became progressively shallow, I drove him to the emergency room in the middle of the night. They told me that a virus had provoked a severe asthma attack.

This what God may be doing with your unanswered prayers

August 4, 2018August 12, 2018 Categories: It's About TrustTags: faith · waiting

I wanted the job. I wanted it badly. And a few weeks after making it to the final round of interviews, I learned that I had just missed the cut. I called my friend Shon to share the bad news. “Is the door totally shut?” he asked.

My baby nephew was dying and his mother’s response was unforgettable

July 14, 2018July 14, 2018 Categories: Miracles · This and ThatTags: faith · miracles · prayer · waiting

My seven-month-old nephew Canaan was dying and nobody knew it, including his doctor, who had misdiagnosed his digestive issues. The real issue was Hirschsprung’s disease, one of the leading causes of death for kids like Canaan, who has Down Syndrome.

Running to an Answered Prayer with No End in Sight

June 28, 2017June 28, 2017 Categories: It's About TrustTags: doubt · fear · suffering · waiting

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,” says Scripture. A lot of us feel sick with unmet hopes and unanswered prayers right now. I know people who are waiting on jobs, babies, marriage, healing, and restoration of relationships, among other things. The needs are as unique as the people and their circumstances. I’m in my own race right now, and yesterday I wrote some thoughts to put words to what it feels like. Maybe you can relate.

Being Grateful When God Makes No Sense

June 14, 2017June 14, 2017 Categories: It's About TrustTags: doubt · faith · healing · prayer · waiting

“Gross.” That’s typically not the word I think of when contemplating a miracle Jesus performed, but there’s one exception.

The Nightmare God Turned Around in a Moment

May 24, 2017May 24, 2017 Categories: It's About TrustTags: dating · fear · marriage · prayer · sin · suffering · waiting

Ten years ago this month, I started the day by getting on my face before God and saying, “Lord, I’m getting down on the floor because if I get up, I’m afraid I’ll do something stupid.” I had good reason to be concerned.

The Strength of Weeping in Weakness

April 5, 2017April 5, 2017 Categories: PrayerTags: doubt · faith · fear · suffering · vulnerability · waiting · writing

I have a friend who was once known for her strength, and now she’s becoming known for her weakness. Rachel Wilhelm, a popular guest writer here, has felt her body break down over the last year. The only diagnosis doctors can offer is fibromyalgia, a mystery illness known for pain, acute weakness, and frequent sleep disturbance. Yet somehow in the midst of it, God has taken Rachel’s weakness and made something strong out of it. Here’s her story, in her own words:

Satan’s Temptation in the Low Times

March 14, 2017March 14, 2017 Categories: Growing PainsTags: fear · grace · suffering · vulnerability · waiting

My wife and I did not intend to have another year of sweeping changes in 2016. We never do. We told ourselves this year was going to be different. The roller coaster was finally going to stop. No more big transitions like the previous eight years of marriage.

Encouragement for Those Who Are Waiting

January 18, 2017November 23, 2017 Categories: It's About TrustTags: fear · suffering · waiting

There are a lot of people out there who are waiting for Big Things and they can’t seem to get a breakthrough. I got the chance to hear from some of those people this week when I shared an essay at Boundless called “So Grateful God Made Me Wait.” Many responded, some whose hearts are aching as they wait, others who are grateful the wait is over.

So Grateful God Made Me Wait

January 17, 2017 Categories: It's About TrustTags: doubt · fear · prayer · suffering · waiting

Last year, God finally answered yes to my years-long prayer request for the “Big Thing.” It doesn’t really matter what the Big Thing was. Maybe it was healing, a financial breakthrough, a reconciled relationship, a job or some other change in circumstance. Whatever it was, my waiting experience was like that of so many other people: a constant fight with the lingering fear that God was punishing me for wanting it too badly.

If You Feel Abandoned by God in the Darkness

December 5, 2016 Categories: It's About TrustTags: faith · fear · grace · suffering · waiting

I went through a long, dark time a few years ago. I prayed that God would end it, that He would set me free from the people and circumstances that vexed me. He did not.

God Doesn’t Do Coincidences

October 31, 2016October 31, 2016 Categories: Miracles · This and ThatTags: faith · grace · waiting

Throughout my 20s, one of the biggest sources of stress in my life was the fear that God didn’t really love me and that I would never really know where I stood with Him. At one one point, however, I put His love to the test: I went on a sinning spree that took me further than I wanted to go and convinced there was no way back.

Joshua Rogers

Finding God in the Ordinary

Tag: waiting