A Little While...

 I've begun to fall in love with the phrase "a little while." But I didn't always love it. I didn't because it hinted at patience... at things I couldn't see. Things I couldn't control. Yet now I'm starting to see things differently... Starting to realize that these three words hold the key to making meaning out of sorrow and holding firmly to hope. Understanding that the way to appreciating what this phrase can offer is simply coming around to another view... His view. 

And isn't that always the trick to unlocking everything? Stop insisting on your own faulty sight and peak around at what He's looking at? Try to see things from the standpoint of the One who is spinning grace into all our stories and weaving His perfect plan through means we cannot trace... 

For years, I read of this "little while" concept in the Scriptures - how Jesus said that "in a little while, you are no longer going to see Me; and again, a little while, and you will see Me" (John 16:16). How He reminded the disciples that a necessary absence was needed in order for Him to return to His Father and go prepare a place for us. That in this world we would have trouble but that He will still send us a Comforter. Also, Peter's words of promise that after we have suffered "for a little while" God will restore us - make us strong, firm, and steadfast (1 Peter 5:10). 

This idea of "a little while" implies that not everything is immediate - that some things are worth waiting for. That God sees fit to seemingly hold out on us for a time in order to bring about His will in the best time. Even from a child, we are not prone to naturally wait well - to be content in less than desirable circumstances and acquiesce to a higher design. When answers or results do not come about in the way and the timing we please, we become frustrated, angry, discontent. Because we only see in part - beings "looking through a glass darkly" (1 Cor. 13:12) and attempting to discern what only the Almighty can truly see. 

And yet, there are so many proofs that much of the journey of walking with God involves the future - the afterward of the story, if you will. In so many ways, He reminds us the ending is good - that the promises He's made are not empty or meaningless... that the wrong will be made right, the unseen become sight, the sorrow turned to joy, and the absence eventual reunion - never to be separated again. We know this all comes to a great close... but still, there is the "little while" to endure until we get there. 

What I'm starting to understand is the difference between what God deems "a little while" and what I deem as "a little while." To Him whom a thousand years are as a single day (Psalm 90:4), "a little while" is no more than an eye-blink. But to me, who has only the reference of past or current time, "a little while" can feel like forever. And when it involves problems and issues I consider of imminent seriousness, I don't necessarily want to wait "a little while" before I find out what God does about it! 

But what if part of God's intent in allowing these "little while" seasons is to help me understand how little I actually control? What if He wants to grow greater dependence in me by letting me see that this whole process isn't up to me anyway? What if, in these pauses where I struggle to believe, trust, and rest, I could find a depth of peace in not having to know or comprehend everything... where I could live by faith and not sight as He desires and simply leave the future up to His sovereign will? 

And how would it change everything if I started realizing that "a little while" puts so much into perspective because nothing lasts... even the pain! Wouldn't it bring me some measure of comfort to know that all things are, to a large degree, cyclical and that the times of silence, of absence, of pausing actually make the resolution all the more sweet! Even if the answers are not what I hope or the results how I dreamed, the simple fact that times of struggle eventually give way to times of relief can give me hope when it feels like the almost, the not-yet, the someday is taking an eternity to arrive. 

I look back on things I've lost, people I've said goodbye to, transitions that have occurred and I realize that I'm now living the " little while" until I see the ending of all that. I'm waiting for the promised future glory even as I continue to live out my days in the now. Right here. Presently content. And I also look ahead to what I hope is coming and I expectantly pray toward that, too. Simultaneously, I live the already and the still-to-come. 

This is what it means to be fully alive - taking in what has already happened while steadying the heart for what's ahead. 

They say all good things take time but I'm not certain most of us are willing enough to give them the actual time they need in order to come to fruition... to give God the time He needs to create what He has in mind. We love to be surprised but not when it jeopardizes our plans, our hopes, our dreams. Yet, unless we live the "little while," we cannot experience our way into the what-comes-after. We cannot know and feel what awaits us on the other side of this darkness, this pain, this suffering, this fear, this doubt until we've properly walked our way through the in-between. 

So yes... these three little words are growing on me... not because I always like what they entail but because I savor the reminder of what they lead to... of Who they lead to. Of Who is waiting on the other side even as He can still walk step for step with us in the middle. Just like when we were kids and we'd ask our parents in the car if the destination was near, God says to us much the same: Soon. A little while. In the meantime, just sit back and take in the ride. Breathe. Wait. Trust. Believe. We'll be there in time and, when we are, it'll be even better than what you can imagine now.