“Yes, we spend ourselves on what we value the most. Whether it’s money, time, energy, or emotions, we pour ourselves out on the thing that we deem most worthy of our devotion.”- Ann Swindell
In Chapter 3 (“When Waiting Costs You Everything”) of Still Waiting, Ann Swindell discusses the high price of hiding. On a personal note, Ann states that she found herself unable to untangle the lie from the truth. Thus, she believed any brokenness tainted the successes in her life. She failed to realize her daily failures with truth didn’t define her or negate her strengths.
But, Ann asks, at what cost? Hiding her condition from her friends and teammates cost her a great deal. Ann paid in time, energy, and friendships. In contrast, friendships build on the back of brokenness. Also, intimacy often stems from shared pain.
Furthermore, we feel desperate when we need something from God. We frantically await His response and action. To varying degrees, we all surrender time, energy, emotional wholeness, and sometimes money, to cover up our weakest places.
However, while desperation has it’s own cost, we face another cost in our painful places. The cost of waiting. Ms. Swindell explains:
“When we have to wait for God to move on our behalf — when we find ourselves at the end of whatever rope we’re hugging — it’s painful. That’s because waiting demands that we pay . . . because when we are forced to wait for God’s work — for his healing, for his provision, for his answer — the waiting itself becomes a high cost. We come to a point in waiting for his breakthrough when it feels like too much to bear. The waiting is the thing that hurts — sometimes even more than the initial pain we faced.”
Today’s question: How do we spend ourselves on what we value the most? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “The cost of waiting — payment of our self-sufficiency”
