Stay With Me

I often can’t wait to get to the next season of life, to travel to the exotic places on my bucket list, or to achieve the goals and dreams I set for myself at the beginning of the year. I let my thoughts wander to the future and what it would be like if I were in the phase of life I wanted to be in. Would it be as I imagine it? Would I miss the season I’m in now? Or what if I never get to that seemingly perfect version of my life that seems to only exist in my mind?

It’s easy to feel behind. To feel like the in-between space you’re in is some kind of punishment for not being better. While everyone else is progressing, you feel like you’re regressing. You take 1 step forward, just to take three steps back. Maybe it feels like God is holding the pause button on your life.

Exciting milestones are taking place all around you. Weddings, Job Promotions, House Warming Parties, Baby Showers. But when you look at your life, you find an unworthy collection of pieces that don’t seem to fit anywhere.

We can’t wait to go anywhere else but here– a here filled with mundane, unexiciting days that still require us to wake up, check off things on our to-do lists, and not drop the ball on our commitments and responsibilities to other people.

We’d much rather move forward without stopping.

Change seasons without waiting.

Book a one-way ticket to the life we’ve curated and designed in our heads.

And upgrade to first-class while we’re at it.

Why is it so hard to want to stay?

Stay where God has me.

Stay where it’s silent.

Stay in the stillness.

Stay hidden.

It’s not wrong to want to go somewhere new or become someone more cultured and traveled. But what if we’re stunting our growth by not staying where God has planted us? Is it possible that progression can exist in other ways outside of our human frame of reference? Don’t we serve a God who transcends time? A God who is in control of every hour that fills our days?

Our God is timeless. In 2 Peter 3:8- “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.”

So why the rush?

I get it, though. I understand the lure of wanting to catch up with the people around us. My fingers are always ready to turn the page to the next chapter. I wait eagerly for the red light to turn green. I hyper-focus on my destination without taking in the view. I keep the windows rolled up, my eyes fixed on the road, and my trust secured on the GPS I’ve relied on to tell me which turns to take.

But when the destination becomes the focal point of where I’m going and the nucleus of everything I do, the could-have-been moments soon become blurred in the rearview.

I didn’t stop to smell the roses on the side of the road after it rained.
I didn’t pull over to breathe in the fresh mountain air at the misty overlook.

I didn’t notice the person on the side of the road asking for my help.

We can miss a lot when we only want the next big thing to unfold. When the smell of the new car fades and the novelty goes with it, we get bored and ask for more. We become jaded, discontent with what we have, and envious of what we don’t.

There will be certain seasons where God asks us to pick up our things and go. In Genesis 12:1, God tells Abram (before he was renamed Abraham) to leave all his earthly comforts behind so that God could make his descendants into a great nation. 

“Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family, And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.”

In the following book of the Bible, God instructed Moses to lead the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt to the promised land of Canaan. God would not allow His children to stay in a place He did not intend for them. He called them out for a better life, but not right away. Forty years of wilderness and testing stood between where they were and where God promised to deliver them.

In Exodus 13:17-18 –

Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near, for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.”

So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt.

From the beginning, God was intentional about which path the Israelites took and how it would make them feel, which is why He had Moses lead them toward the Red Sea instead of war-torn lands. God understood that as time passed in the wilderness, having stayed in Egypt would become increasingly preferable to the hungry Israelites  (Exodus 16:3). However, it was paramount to the timeline of Christ that, Israel left all that they were used to behind. 

Though we’re not expected to journey like the Israelites in this way today, there will be times when God requires us to trust Him and not look back.

So what about when God keeps us still and has us stay? Does that mean He has nothing better in store for our lives? Has He left us behind to fend for ourselves? Does God not notice us in our uncertainty about what to do next?

This line of thought can lead toward a cascade of overthinking, which can usher us into–
Overanalyzing the lives of others.
Dissecting what they’re doing differently to see better results.
and undervaluing the rooms we get to walk into, the people we have the privilege of talking with, and the responsibilities we have been given to do good work during our current season.

When we don’t see God moving, we tend to take a DIY approach and do it ourselves. We uproot, plant, and re-pot ourselves with gardening tools we borrowed prematurely.  We rationalize, “That person over there is doing good. Maybe I’ll have more luck if I move.” Though I can see the importance of change and repotting with new soil, it doesn’t mean we can’t root ourselves where we already are. Sometimes, our environment isn’t what needs to be replaced. It’s our mindset that needs to be recentered.

Reoriented on the knowledge of God’s character– that He is our Provider.

I’ve seen with my own eyes the places in my life where God has so steadily provided for me. He hasn’t overlooked my needs or ignored my cries for help. He’s always given me what I’ve needed precisely when I needed it—not too early, when I wouldn’t have been ready to receive the blessing, and not too late, when I would have settled for something less.

Still, I pray for areas of my life that have plateaued and stagnated. I almost feel like maybe I should stop praying for it to happen since God already knows my desires. But just because I haven’t yet entered the season of life that seems so natural for everyone else doesn’t mean my prayers are a string of wasted words.

Lately, during my prayers, instead of asking God to provide what I think I want, I ask for opportunities to do His will—not mine. I ask for clarity to see what He would have me focus on and the patience to wait on Him. Whenever I feel lost, I pray God will highlight where He wants me to go next.

I sometimes let myself imagine what He would say back to me. It goes a little like this–

“There will be a time when I ask you to go, but for now, simply Stay with Me.

Be patient with Me.

Be still with Me.

Get away with Me.

Learn from Me.

Dream with Me.

Find security in Me.

Cry out to Me.

Be comforted by Me.

Get to know Me.

Abide with Me.

Remain in Me.

Trust Me.

Believe in Me as I believe in you.

Fight for me as I fight for you.

Love Me as I immeasurably love you.

And just as I ask you to Stay with Me, I will stay with you.”

Going back to Exodus 13, when the Israelites were entering the wilderness after their exit from Egypt, verses 21 and 22–

And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.

Though it was the physical steps the Israelites took that got them closer to the Promised Land, a spiritual fortification was required to make it to Caanan. God stayed with them wherever they went just as He stays with those who spiritually stay with Him today. Those who obey Him in the wilderness, in the mundane, during the storms, and on the celebratory mountaintops. Sometimes, staying is just as important as going– learning to lean on our Provider and trust in the timing of His provision, rather than attempting to part our own red seas amid our impatience and grumblings of wanting more.

Though believers worldwide often quote and memorize this verse from Deuteronomy 31:8, it holds great power in reminding us of the God we serve–

“And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”

So whether you’re in a season where you’re being asked to take steps forward with God or remain faithful where He has you, remember that He holds both seasons in His hands.

When I replace my tendencies to compare myself to others with opportunities to abide in the presence of God, I will learn to live with confidence—I’m right where I need to be. Because here, right now, there are still lessons to be learned, people to help, memories to make, and room to grow. In these pockets of stillness, I’m being prepared to embrace whatever comes next.

Because if one day we decide to go searching for our personal promised land without God, it’ll never be ours to inherit.