Who are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? Is there more to this life?

Will you recognize it when it comes?

Or are your circumstances so tough that you’re having second thoughts?

• “I was just diagnosed with cancer. This is not my idea of a loving God.”
• “What am I really doing for Christmas? Sitting alone in my empty house crying.”
• “I lost my job. Unemployment runs out this month, and nobody’s hiring. I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel for food money—don’t talk to me about presents!”
• “I just don’t see any evidence that God is here.”

Even John the Baptist got confused.

• In utero, when his mother greeted Jesus’ mother, John starting jumping around and kicking—he knew who Jesus was! (Luke 1)
• When John, dressed like Elijah and calling for repentance, saw Jesus coming, he declared, “The main character in this drama will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out.” (Matthew 3)
• When he was in prison and realized that a horrible death could be his soon, he sent word to Jesus, “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” (Matthew 11)

Life hurts.

All you feel, see, and taste is pain, PAIN, PAIN!

As you’re living, as you’re waiting, in this time of becoming, what are you focusing on?

What you focus on, what you think about, the places where you spirit dwells—that is what you are becoming.

If you are in the middle of pain, abandonment, confusion, focus instead on Go—on his promises, on what he has done for you in the past, on his love.

STOP—your circular thinking and rehearsing of the pain you are feeling.

LOOK—for God. In his word. In your life. In nature. In pain. In fear.

LISTEN—find a way to be quiet in mind, body, and soul. He is whispering your name.

It’s hard to get out of our thinking loops, to adjust our expectations, and to look for God as he really is rather that the box we have put him into.

God is not defined by our our understanding.

God is not restricted by our circumstances.

He is God. And he whispers your name.