Sailing

As much as we all wait in life why are we still so bad at it? I guess sometimes our want seems greater than the experience or lesson of waiting. You know I don't necessarily think waiting is always really for the person, well, waiting. Sometimes, I think my wait time is for the salvation of someone watching. I know I've talked about this before and really its for my own record so one day when I'm waiting again and finding it difficult again I can turn to some assurance that I'm always doing it for a purpose either for myself or someone else. It's a nice feeling. Baron Batch tells a neat story about our "storms". He played for the Seattle Seahawks and had a knee injury he is now out for the season but he has turned his waiting into something inspirational. Here is an excerpt to his story. He meets two women on the beach one is named Faith the other Doubt and there is a storm fast approaching. In his words: 

Soon we emerge at the end of the path and I can see the ocean. I can also see the enormity of the storm. The storm stretches as far as I can see and I am terrified.

In my fear I turn back to run to Doubt. She said that knew how to avoid the storm. She said she knew a safe way of crossing. As I turn to go back I see the exit to another path that was not the one I came out of. On the exit of that path I see Doubt standing. Her makeup has washed off and she looked nothing like she did before. I call out to her over the roaring winds “You said you had a safer way! You said that we could avoid this storm.”

Doubt says nothing. She just stands at her exit glaring at me.

I turn back to Faith and cry out with tears in my eyes, “What do I do? I can’t face this storm.”

Faith says nothing. She only extends her hand.  I run towards the ocean where she is standing by a small canoe. I look down with fear at the small canoe thinking  “there is no way this will make it through this storm.”

 The waves crash at our feet as Faith calmly says, “Get in and row, don’t stop until I tell you we are through the storm”

I’m terrified but I crawl into the tiny canoe with Faith. We begin to row. The waves toss us from left to right, and up and down but we keep rowing. The rain slaps our bodies but we keep rowing. The thunder proclaims from the clouds, “the storm is here!”  But we keep rowing.  My arms begin to tire, but we keep rowing.

 We row for what seems like eternity and finally the rain slows, the waves calm and the thunder echoes behind us whispering, “The storm has passed.”

I turn to Faith exhausted from the journey and ask, “Why did Doubts path lead to the same place on the beach? I thought she said she could avoid the storm”

Faith simply shook her head and said “Storms aren’t sent so that we can avoid them or run from them.”

“Then why was that storm sent for me?” I asked.

“You’ll see.” Faith said.

As we keep rowing the storm calms more and more and we begin to approach another beach. On this beach I can see thousands of tiny dots, at first I can’t make out what they are but as we row closer I can see that they are people; thousands and thousands of people standing at the waters edge. As we get closer to shore I can see the seemingly endless amount of people standing in amazement watching us row out of the storm in the tiny canoe, just Faith and I. 

I look at Faith and she smiles and says, “That’s why the storm was sent.”

“I don’t get it.” I tell her.

She says, “Do you see all those people? That storm was sent for them, but you are the one who had to sail through it. You are an overcomer. Because you are an overcomer your waters will rarely be calm. Because you are an overcomer your life will not be easy. Because you are an overcomer you will have to sail through storms simply so people can see that it’s possible. Because you are an overcomer you have no choice but to overcome.”

“Your storms are not for you. Your storms are not you own." 

**baronbatchblogspot.com**

 We are still sailing. When we were in the process of International adoption you actually get a number and your number goes down as you get closer to your baby, however we wait with no actual number but we have our life line, a phone used only between her and I, and we wait for this phone to ring....we have a code, BABY in capital letters that she will text to me and then she will call so I have time to compose myself and go meet her at the hospital!

We also text each other on this phone throughout the week, yesterday she wrote: "Just think one more day closer until u can be a mommy."