I was standing in my kitchen the other day, watching the coffee pot drip like it owed me money, silently counting down the seconds till it was done. And it hit me — isn’t that just life? We are always counting down to something.
We count down to birthdays. To paychecks (please hurry). To the weekend. To the blessed moment the kids finally go to sleep and you can hear yourself think again. To vacation. To retirement. To “when things calm down” — which, let’s be honest, is basically a myth at this point, right up there with folding a fitted sheet correctly.
Here’s what I’ve been sitting with lately, in between my third cup of “I promise this is my last coffee”: God never promised the destination would feel different than the journey. Scripture doesn’t say “be anxious for nothing, except during the waiting part, feel free to spiral then.” It says in everything — right smack in the middle of the countdown, the traffic jam, the inbox that refuses to hit zero — bring it to Him with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6). Not after. Not once the timer buzzes. Now. While your patience is hanging on by a thread and a prayer.
I think we treat waiting like a waste of time — like real life starts once we get the job, the healing, the answer, the relationship, whatever it is we’ve got circled in red on the calendar. But friend, I promise you, no season you’ve “just gotten through” was ever actually wasted. It was being used. Shaped. Prepared. Even when it looked like you in sweatpants, eating cereal for dinner, wondering if you were doing any of this right. (You were. Mostly. Some days.)
So maybe the goal isn’t to stop counting down. Maybe it’s just to stop pretending the countdown doesn’t count — messy middle and all.
What are you counting down to right now? And what would it look like to let today matter just as much as the day you’re circling on the calendar?
With so much love (and mediocre coffee),
Momma J 🤍
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