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Waiting Room : What Waiting Seasons Teach Us About Becoming, Healing and Living Anyway · The Voice: Breaking, Believing, Becoming

• 0:10
  Welcome to The Voice. We're breaking, believing, and becoming finally have a place to be heard.
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  I'm Kim Munoz, and I'm so glad you're here.
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  So last week, I talked about the weight of watching, the helplessness that comes
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  with loving someone through a difficult season.
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  When you're having to watch them suffer or struggle, watch them heal through
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  something, or just have to watch them fight battles that we can't fight for them.
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  And as I record this, I've also just returned from spending time with my sister, Ashley.
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  Many of you have followed her healing journey over these past several months,
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  and sitting with her reminded me of something I think all of us eventually learn.
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  Life has waiting rooms, not just the ones in hospitals or doctor offices, the invisible ones,
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  the seasons where you're waiting for healing or answers, you're waiting for
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  a relationship, or maybe you're waiting for a diagnosis, or you're waiting for a door to open,
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  or maybe you're just waiting for God to move and wondering if life is somehow
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  passing you by while you wait.
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  I've spent time in those waiting rooms. Maybe you have too.
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  One of the hardest waiting rooms of my life came during my pregnancy with my twins.
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  It should have been one of the happiest seasons of my life. Instead,
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  it became one of the loneliest.
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  Early in my pregnancy, I was placed on bed rest, and at the very same time,
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  my marriage seemed to be falling apart.
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  The man I thought would be walking through that season with me had emotionally
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  walked away almost overnight.
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  I had to step away from the career I loved. My independence disappeared.
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  My world became four walls, doctor's appointments, and waiting.
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  Waiting for my babies to hopefully stay healthy, waiting to make it through
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  the pregnancy, and waiting to figure out what my life was going to look like after they were born.
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  When life gets that overwhelming, your world gets really small.
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  You're not thinking five years ahead or about rebuilding your life.
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  You're not thinking about what the purpose of all of it is. You're just trying
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  to make it through the day.
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  One doctor's appointment at a time, one prayer at a time, one breath at a time.
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  And maybe that's where some of you are today. Maybe you're carrying something
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  so heavy that tomorrow feels too far away.
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  Maybe today is all you've got. And if that's you, I want you to know that's okay.
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  Because sometimes surviving today is the bravest thing you'll do.
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  Looking back now, I realize something I couldn't have possibly understood then.
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  Even though it felt like my world was falling apart, life hadn't stopped.
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  God hadn't stopped. My babies were still growing. So was I.
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  I couldn't see it then, but strength was being built inside of me.
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  Faith was being stretched. Character was taking shape.
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  Not because I wanted it to, but because that's what difficult seasons often do.
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  I also didn't know I was collecting stories, stories I would one day write about,
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  stories that would eventually become the pages of the book that I'm working on now.
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  At the time, I thought I was simply trying to survive. I had no idea God was
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  giving me experiences that would one day become words, and words I would need years later.
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  Isn't that often how he works? He prepares us long before we understand what he's preparing us for.
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  And sometimes the chapter you're just trying to survive becomes the chapter
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  someone else will one day need to hear.
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  One thing life has taught me is this. Faith does not mean certainty.
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  In fact, most of the time it feels like the exact opposite.
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  Faith is choosing to take one more step when you don't have the whole picture.
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  It's showing up again tomorrow, trusting again, even when nothing around you appears to be changing.
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  Because if you're anything like me, you like details. I mean,
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  I want the plan. I want the timeline.
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  I want God to send me an email that says here's exactly what's happening,
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  preferably with bullet points.
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  But that's rarely how life works. And maybe that's because if we knew every
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  chapter in advance, we'd miss
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  the opportunity to become the person God is shaping us into along the way.
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  One of my favorite people in scripture is David. God anointed him to be king,
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  but he didn't become king the next day.
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  There was a cave before there was a crown.
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  There was years of waiting, uncertainty, years of trusting, and I have to believe
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  those years mattered just as much as the day he finally wore the crown,
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  because God wasn't simply preparing a throne for David, he was preparing David for the throne.
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  I wonder if that's true for us too. Maybe God isn't only preparing the thing we've been praying for.
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  Maybe he's preparing us for it. And those are two very different things.
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  Because the greatest gift isn't always what arrives at the end of the waiting.
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  Sometimes it's who we become by the time it gets here. But here's where waiting
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  can quietly become dangerous.
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  We become so focused on what we're waiting for that we stop noticing the life
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  that's unfolding right in front of us.
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  We tell ourselves, I'll be happy when such and such. I'll start living when this happens.
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  I'll finally have peace when this.
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  And before we realize it, we've attached our entire life to one future moment.
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  But life doesn't stop while we're waiting. Neither does God.
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  In fact, I think some of his greatest gifts arrive disguised as ordinary Tuesdays,
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  disguised as the moments we almost miss.
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  A conversation with a friend, a sunset you almost missed, a laugh you didn't
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  expect, a quiet reminder that even though the answer hasn't come, he's still present.
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  It reminds me of the Israelites wandering through the wilderness.
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  Every single day, God gave them manna.
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  Every single day, he provided exactly what they needed.
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  Yet they spent so much of their time looking toward the promised land that they
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  almost missed the miracle that was showing up every single morning.
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  And before we're too hard on them, how often do we do exactly the same thing?
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  We become so focused on tomorrow's miracle that we overlook today's provision.
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  Years ago, when my boys were young, I used to draw a large circle on a piece of paper,
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  and then I'd place one tiny dot inside of it, and I'd tell them,
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  this circle represents your whole life, and this tiny dot represents the problem you're facing today.
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  Of course their hurt was real, their disappointment was real,
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  and the fear was real, but it wasn't their whole story, and I needed them to understand that.
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  Before my dad passed away, he was working on a second book.
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  One of the ideas he loved was that life is a lot like a football game.
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  It's played in quarters, different seasons, different challenges,
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  different opportunities, and if you're really lucky, maybe a little overtime.
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  I think about that a lot now, especially because I wonder how many of us spend
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  an entire quarter waiting for the next one to begin.
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  We're standing on the sidelines of our own lives thinking, I'll start living in the second quarter.
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  I'll enjoy life after this season, or I'll be happy when this prayer is answered.
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  Meanwhile, the clock never stops running.
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  The first quarter ends, The second one starts. Then suddenly you're at halftime
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  wondering where the time went.
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  Before you know it, you're in the fourth quarter asking, how did I get here so fast?
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  And if God blesses us with overtime, what a gift.
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  But none of us are promised overtime. That's why this quarter matters.
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  This conversation matters, and this ordinary Tuesday that we speak of matters.
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  The people sitting around our table matter, because while we're busy waiting
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  for life to begin, the game is already being played.
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  That's what waiting seasons have taught me more than anything else.
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  Don't spend an entire quarter waiting for the next one, because God is just
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  as present in this one as He will be in the next.
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  And I think we all need that reminder sometimes, because when you're sitting
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  in a waiting room, it's easy to believe the waiting room has become your whole life, but it hasn't.
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  It's just one chapter. It's just a dot. It's not the whole book.
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  Some of you are waiting for healing. Some of you might be waiting for a marriage to improve.
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  Some may be waiting for a child to come home, or a diagnosis to change.
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  Some may be waiting for grief to hurt a little less.
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  And those are real places to be. I'm certainly not minimizing them.
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  I've lived some of those.
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  But here's what I hope you'll remember.
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  Don't postpone your life until the waiting is over don't wait to laugh to love,
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  don't wait to notice the people sitting at your table today because while you're
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  waiting for the one chapter to begin another chapter is already being written.
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  Before we go, I want to leave you with one question, well, maybe more than one.
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  What if this waiting season isn't simply about what you're hoping God will do?
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  What if it's also about who He's helping you become?
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  And what if, while you're waiting for the next chapter, there are beautiful
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  moments in this one that deserve your attention, too?
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  Maybe today you find yourself sitting in a waiting room.
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  If that's where you are, don't mistake the waiting room for the end of your
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  story, because God has a remarkable way of doing some of His greatest work there,
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  not only in the circumstances around us, but in the hearts within us.
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  Thank you for spending this time with me today. If this episode encouraged you,
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  I hope you'll share it with someone who's sitting in their own waiting room.
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  And remember, life doesn't stop while you're waiting.
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  Neither does God. I'll see you next time. Until then, take care of yourself.
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  Keep believing, keep becoming, and keep listening to The Voice.