Savoring our Longings

It has been one year since we landed in Africa.  We could use the words monumental, joyful, painful, stretching, uncertain, hopeful, and transformational to describe the past 365 days or so.  My biggest prayer now is that EVERYTHING that was planted this year, everything that was sown in our lives would reap a harvest.  Not just for us but for others.  That there would be purpose in it.  Lately I've been pondering the idea of savoring our longings.

My tendency is to jump out of my longings, fix them, and piece something together that will help my two feet land on the ground quicker.  However,  I've been reminded over the past couple of weeks that there's something beautiful and deep and rich about surrendering in the middle of our longings and soaking in them and allowing Heaven to really come to earth and be fulfilled rather than in my own human strength coming up with something I can piece together myself short changing the process of God in my life.  I have always felt something for Jonah's prayer that came while he was inside the belly of the fish.  Can you imagine his longing to be...um...out of the belly of a fish? However, that circumstance was really his salvation.  "But you brought my life up from the pit" he says.  A few verses later in the same prayer he declares..."Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs."   

Jumping out of our longings too soon causes us to forfeit God's best for us.

For some it could be waiting for the spouse God has for you.  Tyson and I waited ten years before we met.  Ten years of our lives were in a season of singleness.  That was a long season of longing for both of us - in different ways, but we were both longing.

This past year in our lives of moving our family to Africa, unexpectedly getting so sick so quickly and then returning back to the US because of it, grappling with all the implications of that, finding the balance between letting ourselves heal and feeling the need to move forward and all else in between has put us in a new season of longing.  Most recently, a desire to feel firmly rooted and secure about our new direction.  That's been my longing as a wife and a mother for sure.  I'm faced with a choice...

Sometimes, I'm mid stride leaping over to self-sufficiency when the Lord, in His kindness pulls me back into His heart where I find real rest.  Real rest comes when we surrender in His arms, and we can rest in our longings, when we realize His heart for us is good and when that longing is fulfilled if we allow ourselves to savor the longing and savor His goodness and meditate on His heart for us and allow Him to work behind the scenes that when a longing is fulfilled we will say "Wow."  Thank you for that season, thank you that we waited for YOU.  Thank you that you have done more than we could ever do ourselves.  You have done this for us!

What are you are longing for? -  a spouse, a healing, a child, a mended relationship, financial provision.  Consider this season a gift.  Know He loves you, He's working on your behalf.  He's interceding for you right now with groans that words can't express.  He can do more for us than we could ever do in our own strength.  In the process, we get the gift of intimacy with our Father.  We get the gift of the journey.  Rest.Right.Where.You.Are.  You are loved! You are not forgotten!