More Than a Holding Pattern

Have you ever felt like your spiritual life is a plane stuck in a holding pattern? You know God has a destination for you—a new ministry, a breakthrough, or a fresh season of growth—but right now, you are just circling. Round and round.

It isn’t necessarily a crisis. Unlike the man in the messy, muddy pit described in the Psalms, we aren't sinking. In fact, like passengers in a comfortable cabin, we might even be enjoying the amenities. We sip our coffee, listen to the music, and settle into the seat. But as the years circle by, a dangerous resignation sets in. We adopt a passive attitude, thinking, "Well, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away." We begin to suspect that God intends for our lives to be meaningless, so we lose interest in the destination and just order another coffee.

Friends, this is not the waiting God calls us to.

The man paralyzed by the pool of Bethesda waited thirty-eight years, but his waiting had turned into calcified hopelessness. He was resigned to a system that couldn't save him. In contrast, biblical waiting is not a passive delay; it is an active, muscular spiritual discipline. It is the act of binding ourselves to the Lord, much like a climber trusts the tensile strength of a rope.

God is calling us to wake up from our spiritual slumber. He doesn’t want us merely tolerant of the delay; He wants us full of holy anticipation. The Pilot has not forgotten the runway. We should be checking our seatbelts and looking out the window, asking, "Lord, what is Your timing? Who are the new people I will meet when we land? What is the new song You are giving me to sing?"

Don’t resign yourself to the circle. Trust the Pilot, reject the lethargy of the comfortable drift, and prepare your heart. The landing gear is going down, and a new adventure is on the horizon.