STUCK IN BETWEEN

To let go and let God or—

Everyday we get stuck in the middle of something like traffic, queue, or deadlines, you know, things that normally we can avoid or get out of easily.

But it’s a different story when you’re deciding to let go of something you have had for some time. Whether to let God redirect you or to hold on to it a little more. This has been a huge muddle in terms of the waiting game. Especially in love.

The problem in waiting is that we don’t see the beauty in it. Often times we are only eager to look at the result, skipping the process we called, “waiting”. It’s like eating a slice of cake, you bite into it, you savour every layer of its sweetness but never asked the store owner how it was baked into that perfection. We only want the result, the end-product, like that cake you devoured, you never cared about the process it went through.

Aren’t we all too preoccupied day dreaming for that one great love story and ignoring the fact that the waiting game should be played well, in fact really well. The bible contains some of the most wonderful love stories ever told. One inspiring story is that of Jacob and Rachel.

Jacob was sent by his father Isaac to find a wife from a relative‘s family. He met Rachel at the well and for him, it was love at first sight. He went to the well and when he single-handedly moved the great stone cover off of the well, perhaps trying to impress Rachel. You can tell that Jacob didn’t take long before he knew that he loved Rachel as recorded in Genesis 29:10-11: “When Jacob saw Rachel, daughter of his uncle Laban, and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud.” Interestingly, it wasn’t Rachel that cried but Jacob. He seemed to know with certainty that Rachel would be his bride. Rachel ran to her father and told him about the young traveler. Rachel’s father, Laban, ran out to meet Jacob and invited him to stay with him.

Jacob stayed with Laban’s family and within a month, he had fallen deeply in love with Rachel and was determined to marry her. However, in order to marry her, Rachel’s father had convinced Jacob to work for him for seven years. Jacob loved Rachel so much that he laboured for her for seven years, “but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her” (Gen 29:20). Love sometimes makes things in life more bearable as it did for Jacob.

But Laban tricked Jacob. Instead of Rachel he was married to Leah, Rachel’s older sister. Laban told Jacob that he can still marry Rachel if he agreed to work another seven years for him. Jacob out of great love for Rachel agreed to it.

Don’t be busy waiting for that love to come but instead be busy bettering yourself- not for the one you are waiting to come- but for the One who has already come.

It’s hard to get stuck when you are busy.

Love cannot be fully understood until we encounter the beauty and nature of God’s love for us. On how it runs deep. It gets harder to decide to let go and let God for those who have not experienced that kind of love from the Father. Because if we knew, we won’t ever get stuck deciding to let God direct that love story we’re hoping to have.

Letting God take control becomes easy.

If we know how to love the right way, it is easy for love to come find us. Immerse yourself in the beauty of everyday. Learn to love all the chances to be good wether it came from bad experiences, or facing the complexities of characters of the people you meet. When you look at love on how God sees it, use it, it’s hard to get stuck, it’s easy to let go and be free.

Love will come when it’s time to come. Enjoy this season with God, bathe in his unending, unconditional love, soak yourself in His presence, till you are ready, love will come find you.