It’s already started.  Going to the mailbox these days means retrieving a fist full of advertisements and magazines with holiday themes.  You see it when you walk into your favorite retail store, and fake snow and Christmas trees greet you in your flip flops and shorts.  Why is pushing the season such a thing?  Just when most folks (other than me) are enjoying their pumpkin lattes, out come the candy canes and frosted mugs for hot chocolate with Santa.

To coin a phrase here in the South, it ain’t right. 

Just the other day, I was telling a dear friend about something I have learned in this season I am in:  There is such a long stretch between when God gives us something — a promise, a confirmation — and the time we see it manifest.  You simply can’t rush it.

Certainly, we are not alone in this.  Look at Sarah and Abraham and how long it took for Isaac to be born.  David was a shepherd for years before he took the throne.  And let’s not forget about Joseph and his journey from the prison to the palace.  So many twists and calamities and hardships, all pit stops on the way to victory.

I bet you can relate.

For me, coming to trust that God is preparing me for what comes next, is where I am finding both my comfort and my challenge.  Sometimes, it's frustrating to feel that I am in a holding pattern.  I am doing what I need to do, taking care of my responsibilities, guiding those who need me, walking out my faith…  Yet, I am aware that to some, it seems I am barely moving. 

Healing is a process that comes from the inside out.  It’s not visible to others.  And so, there is a tension between where some people think we should be, and where we actually are. If we fake it til we make it, or put on the facade that we are better than we really are, we gloss over the importance of reconciling the parts of us that still need fixing.  We will be no better off when we move into our new season, or relationship, if we do not heal from the one before it.  This is why people continue to make the same mistakes over and over again.  They don’t see that you can’t  get to Easter without Good Friday.  Something has to die so that we can rise again brand new.

The pause, that place between where I am and what God has for me, is where He does the greatest work.  It’s the place of purging and making space, of perspective and acceptance, of seeing things that I had not wanted to, and of understanding that God knew things that I could possibly never know before now.  He had some rearranging to do in my life.

What I am coming to understand, is that the world wants to push us ahead — having us always project ourselves into what is coming so that we will rush through the pause of what is right now.  We get caught up in a whirl of “buy it now.”  We don’t take care of the the process of today.  We sweep things under rugs and shorthand our emotional and spiritual work so that we look like we are ready for our new seasons, but inwardly are empty and a mess.

I believe that is why God gives us glimpses of what is to come, so that we can be encouraged and prepare.  What He wants for us takes time.  If it is real, if it is from Him, our spirits will soar with knowing it is for us.  We won’t need to push ourselves to arrive when hearts are simply not ready.

There is something unnatural about preparing for Christmas when it is only September.   In the same way, I don’t believe that God will rush how He is preparing us for what He’s promised. 

Whatever it is that He has placed in your heart, He will fulfill it.  Enjoy your lattes and Pumpkin Spice everything.  The pause before the promise is good.  Wait in the knowing that what is coming will arrive right on time.

And when it does, you will be ready.