Waiting and Hoping in the Middle of Your "Wasteland"
I just finished taking another Covid-19 test, the one with the swab up your nose. It’s not fun. I get the test weekly because I help care for my dad who has medical problems and is in the high-risk group. I’ve decided it’s worth it if I can help make his life a little better and get back to normal.
This morning I read the story of how an angel named Gabriel came to Mary and told her she was going to have a baby without having ever been with a man. As an engaged Jewish girl, the penalty for having sex outside of marriage was being stoned to death. If that didn’t happen then she could look forward to her marriage being called off, then being talked about and looked down on for the rest of her life. So when Mary tells Gabriel, “Let it be done to me as you’ve said”, you really have to be amazed at the faith and courage of this teenage girl.
The Christmas season is all about waiting and hoping that God keeps his promise to rescue us.
I think that’s so appropriate for so many of my clients and friends who are miserable in their current jobs, in the “wasteland” between jobs or trying to get some answers about which direction to go in their work lives. They are waiting and hoping that the painfully challenging time they are in will be worth enduring because there will be a good thing at the end of that road. It’s like they are investing their pain and anxiety in the hopes of a dividend that hasn’t yet been revealed.
Part of my role in their lives is to introduce them to (or remind them of) the idea that there is reason to hope for a good outcome to their wasteland experience. You see, I believe there is purpose and meaning to these experiences. There is always the learning opportunity – a chance to really take stock of what jobs will fit you and what’s important to you. But there’s also an intangible, and often unnoticed change that can happen to us as we journey through these times.
Difficult times in our lives and vocational journey can change our character for the better. We can learn how to wait patiently, we can reshuffle our priorities and our life boundaries so we can have a life that’s more meaningful, we can gain insight on where we’ve placed our hopes and, perhaps, change it. Ironically, these times can help bring about “real” life change that would never happen if we were at ease and comfortable.
Of course, that can all sound like rationalized patronizing (like the well-meaning but naïve person who tells you your painful experience is God’s will) unless you can be shown a substantial truth that backs it up. That’s where I take my role as a friend and coach very seriously. I have a responsibility to speak truth to my friends or clients, but to also perceive and share the true reasons for hope that inhabit their wasteland experience and not simply provide false comfort.
Maybe that’s why I love the Christmas story. It’s an annual reminder of the meaning and purpose our lives always carry, but to which we are often blind. Mary was willing to endure the hard consequences of being “highly favored by God” because she believed there was a larger purpose and reason to hope at the end of them. In some ways, perhaps that’s our own challenge as well.
It’s my hope, and prayer, that each of you will get a glimpse of the things worth hoping for at the end of whatever challenges your current journey holds; be it the difficulties of this seemingly unending Covid-19 crisis, hardships in your personal life or difficult things in your work and family. May the promises wrapped in the Christmas story be made real in your life.
And thank you for allowing me to be a part of your story. I am often reminded of how much it is a real Christmas (and year-round) gift in my life. I am grateful for each of you.
Merry Christmas,