From Waiting to Wonder

Sometimes God does His greatest work in the places we can’t wait to leave. I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent a lot of my life believing that the next season would be the better season. It was going to be that next job, or the next house, opportunity, chapter of life.  Well, you get it.  If I could just get there! This is about going from waiting to wonder.

Psalm 27:14

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

This is when life would finally begin. Maybe you’ve felt that way too. Maybe you’re waiting for retirement, a healing, the right relationship, or the next promotion. Or it may be as simple as life to feel “normal” again.

I’ve discovered something surprising over the years. Sometimes the seasons we’re trying hardest to leave are the very seasons God is using the most. Carmen and I learned that lesson from a tiny one-bedroom apartment.

When Life Doesn’t Look Like You Planned

I can still picture us sitting on the floor surrounded by moving boxes.

The moving truck had just pulled away. The apartment smelled like fresh paint and someone else’s memories. Boxes labeled “Kitchen,” “Bathroom,” and “Miscellaneous” surrounded us.

It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t the dream we’d imagined.

Just a few months earlier, we’d sold our business. We’d walked through a lawsuit. The world had shut down because of COVID. We’d packed up everything familiar and headed toward what we believed was God’s next step.

Only…

Instead of arriving at the dream…we arrived at a tiny apartment. I remember looking around and quietly saying, “This isn’t where I thought we’d be.”

Carmen smiled, squeezed my hand, and said something I’ll never forget. “Maybe it’s not where we thought we’d be…but maybe it’s exactly where God needs us.”

Looking back, she was right. She usually is. And if she is reading this, she is smiling about what I just wrote, lol.

We Thought We Were Downsizing…God Was Simplifying

The apartment was supposed to be temporary. One year, maybe less.

Instead…One year became three.

When you’ve spent years collecting furniture, decorations, tools, keepsakes, and all the other things that somehow become “necessary,” moving into a small apartment becomes an exercise in brutal honesty.

What stays? What goes? Carmen affectionately called it “The Art of Purging.”

Her rule was simple. If something came in…Something had to go out.

At first, I thought she was talking about closets. Turns out… God was talking about me. Little by little, I realized He wasn’t just helping us get rid of excess furniture. Here’s a short list He was helping me let go of – Excess:

• Worry
• Control
• Pride

Excess dependence on things that had quietly become my security instead of Him. Sometimes God has to create space before He fills it.

Sometimes pruning isn’t punishment; it’s preparation.

John 15:1-4 NIV

The Gift Hidden Inside of Simplicity

Something unexpected happened during those apartment years. We slowed down. Without a big house to maintain, without endless projects, without chasing the next thing…

We found something we’d been missing – each other.

Morning coffee on the lanai became sacred. Evening walks around the apartment complex became our routine with Weegee, the best pet ever.

We watched turtles wander past, along with rabbits, owls, and one afternoon a pregnant bobcat casually strolled by as if she owned the place.

Truthfully…She probably did.

During COVID, while so much of the world felt uncertain, our little apartment quietly became a sanctuary.

Ironically, the last Bible study we’d completed before moving to Florida was Bill Hybels’ Simplify.

At the time I thought it was simply (no pun attended) another good study. Looking back…I think God was assigning homework years ahead of time.

John Mark Comer speaks of the importance of slowing down in his book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. God really wants this for us.

Waiting Isn’t Wasted

If I’m honest…I didn’t enjoy waiting. I wanted answers, progress, and clarity. I wanted to know what came next.

But God seemed far more interested in shaping my character than satisfying my curiosity.

That’s the thing about waiting. We usually think God is delaying us. But what if He’s actually developing us?

While I was asking, “God…when do we move?” He was asking, “Scott…who are you becoming?”

Those are very different questions. And only one of them lasts forever.

Looking Back Changes Everything

Today, when I think about those apartment years, I don’t remember them as the years we “had to get through.”

I remember them as the years that quietly prepared us for everything that came afterward. The friendships, the ministry, the opportunities, and yes, even Chateau Mariposa.

None of it would have looked the same had God not first slowed us down. It’s funny how perspective works. At the time…

• All I saw were cramped rooms – God saw a classroom.
• I saw a delay – God saw discipleship.
• I saw waiting = God saw wonder.

Your Everyday Life

Maybe you’re living in your own apartment season right now. Maybe your life doesn’t look anything like you imagined. Or maybe you’re wondering if God forgot the plans He once placed on your heart.

Can I encourage you?

Don’t rush through the season you’re in. God rarely wastes waiting. The place that feels ordinary today may someday become the place you look back on and realize…

“That’s where God changed me.”

Because sometimes the smallest places become the classrooms where God prepares us for the biggest chapters of our lives. It is a needed season…

Challenge of the Week

Before you rush into whatever comes next, spend a few quiet moments asking yourself:

• What if this season isn’t an interruption, but an invitation?
• What is God asking you to let go of so He can make room for something better?
• Could the waiting you’ve been resisting actually be preparing you for the answer you’ve been praying for?

Maybe your life isn’t on hold. Maybe it’s under construction. So be it.

If you’ve just jumped in and are interested in following the whole series of posts leading up to this point in the journey I’ve been writing on, When Love Found Me, then here are the links where you can go back and jump into the journey with me:

• When Love Found Me – This is the introduction to it all.
• Before Love Found Me – God was pursuing me before I knew it.
• God at a Distance – I was looking in the wrong places.
• When God Broke In – God met me in my brokenness.
• After the Tears – Following Jesus became a shared journey.
• Packing Up Faith – Obedience required leaving the familiar.
• Making Room – God transformed our home into a place where others could encounter His love.
• Trusting God’s Hand – Even when it doesn’t make sense.
• When You Think You Need One More Miracle – and no matter, God does it again!