An arrow pulled from the quiver. Notched with an expert hand to the string of the bow. The fingers grip the shaft, the string, then the pull.
Pulling back and back and back and back…
The string becoming taught with the pull.
The arrow resting.
Waiting.
The archer aims the arrow.
Never directly at the target.
There is wind.
Distance.
Gravity.
Still, the arrow waits.
It doesn’t throw itself from the string and out of the archer’s hands, flinging itself towards the target yards and yards away.
It waits.
It is patient.
Still.
Be still, and know that I am God.Psalm 46:10
I am in a season of my life, where I feel that I have been removed from a quiver.
Set in a string and I feel the Divine Archer and Creator of my life pulling back the string with a firm hand.
Part of me longs for Him to let go and to launch me towards the goal, the long-awaited target in my life. I see it! FOR THE FIRST TIME I SEE IT. I SEE IT!
It’s not just the target that the rest of us arrows sit around in the quiver and talk about.
It’s real!
It is right there in front of me.
I am hungry for it.
I want it.
But, He is still pulling back the bow.
The string is getting painfully tight. I can feel the tension behind it and I long to relieve it.
I want to launch myself into the arms of that target and hold fast to it.
And now it seems as if I am going in a direction that…isn’t even close to the heart of the target.
There are seasons in life, where things are seemingly rapid fire.
Then there are seasons in life where the tensions builds, the string is pulled back further than we thought possible, there are times where we can’t even see the target that we are aimed at, or there are so many we aren’t sure which one we should even aim to hit.
In those times, I think I’ve been tempted to throw myself away from the sting of the wait, the snap of the string as it releases the tension building, that in my own strength I can hit the target.
But.
I can’t.
I in and of myself.
I can do nothing.
Only through the strength of my Divine Archer, who can see the target.
Through the mist, the winds, the storms of life, the pressure of the crowd…the ultimate prize.
What I get to do is…
Rest.
Rest, trust, wait.
My Divine Archer will not release me too soon, He will not false fire, He will hit the target, He won’t get pressured by the crowd to make the wrong choice, He won’t pull back too far, He won’t wait too long, He will hit the mark.
Rest.
Wait.
Trust.
Believe.
Let us labor therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.Hebrews 4:11
In my season of waiting this is what I am learning, sometimes I have to fight to enter into that rest, to enter into that place of sweet trusting and resting. To lay things on the altar before God, my expectations, my way of doing things.
People are like so what are you doing with your life?
Me. Doing exactly what God is asking of me.
Which doesn’t really have a title or a job description or a high-income salary or anything glamorous. But it is living and learning and walking in the way He is showing me.
So, I am actively waiting.
Waiting for what is to come.
Resting.
Assured.
My Divine Archer knows what is best.