Singleness

Singleness.

Some see it as a waiting room, and some see it as a mountain peek.
A solo journey that can be viewed in two vastly different stances. The same peak but two contrasting vantage points.
A lack or a gift.
A less than or a greater than.
A time of torment or a time of serenity.
The noun doesn’t change the person but the differing ways of thinking and being do.

One views it as a liminal space where you’re just in holding until it’s your turn to enter the next available open door.
Another sees it as a vantage point that holds much beauty and contentment so few ever see for fear of traversing alone.

Both have their purpose—and that is to teach one how to wait and how to wait well.
However one waits is determined by the position of their heart.
Are we waiting in fear and uncertainty or waiting in hope and peace?

“Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,
for I wait on Thee. —Psalm 25:21

One may teach how to wait for what is perceived as “The One,” while the other may teach how to wait with the One who is the One.

They can both so easily frustrate a person to feel the inadequacies of waiting- be it the waiting is because of some shortcoming or unworthiness or it could be an ill-equipped perception as the cause of the uncertain ascent.

One can be seen as a hindrance to the life they feel they deserve and desire, while one can be seen as an advantage to a life that they don’t deserve yet deeply revere and appreciate they’ve been given.

But my, how each boldly serves one to grow dependent upon the unspoken, often unnoticed Spirit in the room and on the trail. The essence beckoning for beholding. The facilitator and groundskeeper longing for sole affection, desiring to be the First Love. It’s the difference between traversing to fill a void while wandering aimlessly and seeking to be filled while rooted and focused.

Both are places of waiting but dare I ask, are we waiting in a lonely, fluorescent-lit room with a spirit of discontentment clinging to the announcement of our “Next!” or are we waiting in a lush wilderness of natural sunlight with a spirit of exploration cleaving to how we are growing more holy than fixating so intently on holy matrimony?

“This instinct for love, so firmly implanted in the human heart,
is the supreme way by which we learn to desire and love God himself above all else.”
—Hinds’ Feet on High Places.