We have all had more than our share of disappointment. I sure have. I confess to you, I do get tired of them. I pray and I believe God but … it does not turn out at all the way I thought it was going to. Does this sound at all familiar to you?

What do we do with all the disappointments? Jobs pass us by, invitations pass us by, we fail at something we had hoped to do well at, we trusted God to lead a certain way… the list goes on. The more we live the more we have successes certainly, but my goodness, we also have to face the disappointments.

What could possibly be the upside of disappointments? Here is what I have discovered. It ushers you back to the forest where there is this path, and just off to the side a bench and when you look down you see carved into the stone bench is the words “ waiting place”. You notice it is well worn but very readable. The fact is - there is a lot of waiting in this life of ours. How we wait is the challenge we face.

We rant, we complain and maybe we are even bitter for awhile… but is this really how we want to live out this season of life? I wonder if there is not stages of disappointment like stages of that of grief. Some disappointments we can easily let go of- it is not a big deal anyway. Some though are big and they leave us feeling winded and bewildered while we sit on the waiting bench.

If you are broken hearted while you sit there the good news is that God promises us that He is near to the broken hearted. So if we can think of nothing else to be thankful for while we sit there, we can start by thanking Him for His presence. I pray that He will reveal Himself to you while you wait. In Psalm 121 He promises to be a very present help in times of trouble. That is also comforting.

Disappointment ushers into that “what now God” conversation .The wonderful thing is that He invites us into honest conversation with Him. As you wait - I pray that He will give to you His peace. The funny and awesome thing about His kind of peace, is this; it can rest on you even when not one thing from what you can see - has changed. We just know that He sees us while we sit there, He hears us while we rant or whatever we are doing. He cares and loves us still. His promises are all intact and this season of the waiting bench is not forever though it might feel like it.

I pray dear reader that in some small way, you will find some comfort today. The upside is simply this, we are in the position to sit on this bench and ask “ what is next then God” and know that He hears us. You are not alone. Many of us find ourselves sitting on that same bench or perhaps, we were just there. God has many lessons to be learned at “the waiting bench”.