Everyone goes through different seasons in life, and one of the hardest seasons anyone can experience is the waiting season. The kind where you feel like your life is on hold while everything around you seems to be moving. For me, that season showed up right after school, during my NYSC waiting period, and honestly, it didn’t look anything like what I had planned.
After graduating, I expected things to move quickly. You know that mindset where you already have timelines for your life… by this age I should be here, by this point I should be there. But life didn’t follow my plan. Instead of moving straight into NYSC, I found myself at home with my mum, helping her take care of children in her care.
At that time, she didn’t really have anyone assisting her, so I became the one there every day. Helping with the children, cleaning, supporting her work, and just being present. To be honest, it didn’t feel like a “season of purpose” at all. It felt like delay. It felt like I was stuck in a place I was supposed to have outgrown.
And while I was there, something was happening inside me. I kept thinking, “Okay, I’m done with school now… so what next?” But instead of clear answers, I just kept hearing in my spirit that I should stay. I should serve. I should wait.
Waiting sounds easy until you are the one waiting.
Because every day came with its own test. If you have ever taken care of children closely, you will understand what I mean. They can test your patience in ways you didn’t even know existed. I remember one particular day very clearly. I had just finished cleaning the toilet, feeling a small sense of relief that at least something was in order, only for one of the children to walk in and urinate on the floor again.
In that moment, I just paused and looked at the floor. It felt like something in me snapped a little. Not because of the child, but because of everything I was already carrying in my heart. It felt like, “God, is this really my life right now?”
And that was just one day.
One month became two months. Two months became three. Three became five. Five became seven. Before I knew it, almost eight months had gone by.
And with every passing month, the same question kept repeating itself in my heart: when exactly am I going for NYSC? Because this was not the timeline I had in mind for myself at all. I had my own expectations, my own mental picture of how life after school was supposed to look. But here I was, living something completely different, and trying to make sense of it.
There were days it felt frustrating. There were days it felt like nothing I was doing mattered. There were days I honestly wondered if God had forgotten me in that place. Because from the outside, it just looked like I was at home, helping with children, while my mates were moving forward with life.
But even in that place, God kept asking me to stay. Not to rush. Not to force things. Just to stay.
At the time, I didn’t understand it. I just obeyed, even if it was with questions in my heart.
Looking back now, I realize that God was not wasting my time. He was working on me in ways I could not see.
Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” At that point in my life, I didn’t feel like anything was working together for my good. It just felt like repetition, patience, frustration, and waiting. But now I can see that even the days that felt meaningless were part of something bigger.
That season taught me patience in a way I don’t think any classroom could have taught me. It taught me endurance. It taught me how to serve even when I didn’t feel seen or celebrated. It taught me how to keep showing up even when I didn’t understand the reason.
Isaiah 40:31 later became very real to me: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength…” Because in that waiting season, I slowly began to realize that waiting is not empty. Waiting is actually shaping something inside you.
Then eventually, the NYSC call came.
And interestingly, everything that followed was surprisingly smooth. I can only describe it as grace. There was help at every point. No unnecessary stress. No struggle like I had imagined. Everything just seemed to fall into place in a way that I knew was not by my own strength.
At camp, I was not stranded. I met people who were kind, people who became part of my story in ways I didn’t expect. There was strength for all the activities I had been afraid of months before. Even the finances came through in ways that can only be described as God’s provision.
It was almost like God was saying, “Now you can see why I asked you to wait.”
And then came my primary place of assignment. Interestingly, I was posted to a place where I worked with children again. The same area I had spent months in before NYSC suddenly became part of my assignment. That alone made me realize that nothing was wasted.
Even the patience I thought was just survival became a skill I needed. Even the experience I thought was random became preparation.
Then something else happened. A few months into my service year, I got an internship opportunity that didn’t just bless me, but actually began to shift my career direction. And I knew clearly that this was not something I forced. It was something God aligned at the right time.
At that point, I understood something deeply. If I had rushed ahead of God’s timing, I might have missed what He was quietly preparing me for. I might have stepped into opportunities without the capacity to handle them.
Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart.” Waiting is not punishment. Sometimes it is preparation wrapped in silence.
And maybe that is the hardest part of it. The silence. The uncertainty. The feeling that nothing is happening. Because in those moments, you keep praying, you keep hoping, you keep expecting, but you don’t see immediate results.
Maybe you are in that place right now. Waiting for admission. Waiting for a scholarship. Waiting for marriage. Waiting for healing. Waiting for a job. Waiting for answers that seem delayed.
I just want to tell you something simple: God is not absent in your waiting.
He is not ignoring you. He is not forgetting you. And He is not late.
Sometimes, what looks like delay is actually alignment. And what feels like silence is actually God building something deeper in you.
I had to learn to stop trusting only my plans and start trusting God’s process. Because sometimes, the greatest evidence of God’s grace is not that He removes the waiting immediately, but that He uses the waiting to shape us into who we need to become.
So if you are in a waiting season right now, don’t lose hope. There is a story being written in your life that you cannot fully see yet. But one day, when everything comes together, you will realize that nothing was wasted.
Not the delay. Not the tears. Not the confusion. Not the silence.
It was all threads of grace.
Follow us on our socials!
Comments
Post a Comment