Meantime is Believe Time

What do you do in the meantime? Your life is not advancing, and you don’t have time to wait. You are the classic overachiever, and while things have never come easy for you, they have come timely. You graduated high school with ease and earned 24 college credits in the process. Graduating college ahead of schedule was no issue and you learned to function with a hangover is your specialty. Grad school came and went along with a few failed relationships, but, hey, you are employed in a career in your field-of-study; however, there is a void. You want more out of life. Your current job is suitable, but it is not what you dream of at night and at your desk while you are listening to 2 Chainz, formatting an Excel spreadsheet for your boss who didn’t even go to college.

Seven things to remember:

1) You have to go through your dues season to get to your due season! Pastor Cartwright taught me that. How do you expect to advance without putting in the work? You’re focused on a promotion, not the process, but the process is what leads to the promotion.

I know you are not doing what you love, but this is where you practice for your dream. This where you get busy. Learn everything that you can. Make connections. Get your hands dirty.

2) Every level that you go to will require a new level of you! Do you remember playing Super Mario Brothers and when the game started you were Little Mario, then you ate a Mushroom (drugs are bad) and became Big Mario, then you ate a fire plant (again, drugs are bad) and Mario could shoot fireballs, then you got the star and Mario lit up like the fake Christmas Tree (depending on when you read this) in your living room. Life is kind of like that, but there is no princess at the end, just bigger and badder Bowsers. Get ready.

3) Nurture your nature! From the planter’s perspective, after a seed is buried nothing happens for a time. However, the planter has faith that the process is taking place behind the scenes or in this case under the dirt. So, what does the planter do until life sprouts? Pour water, spread poop (there’s a lesson in that), fend off intruders; essentially, creates the conditions needed for the seed to thrive.

You spend your time playing video games instead of reading development books. Your weekends are spent Snappchatting your “it’s lit” face instead of gleaning from you mentors with valuable insight. Growth preparation is as crucial as the growth itself.

4) Delay is not Denial! You have done all you can do to prepare for the position. You know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are ready for the challenge, but you still can’t make it into your promised land, and now you are questioning yourself while giving God the “new upward looking” emoji face. What if God knows that you are ready for the next level, but he knows the next level is not ready for you? Mind blown! Hear me out, what if there are giants that he wants to get out first?

Goliath could have been your boss and you, sir or mam, are no David. Even if you are, you would have been sent to HR for hitting your boss in the forehead with a stone from a slingshot. Let’s not even discuss decapitation.

5) Comparison is the thief of joy! That is not in The Bible unless I missed the Book of Ben Franklin, but we can pretend it is. Nothing will send you into a spiral of misery quicker than receiving a phone call from your boy, and he says he got an awesome new job building space shuttles for NASA. You ask is NASA still a thing, I thought they discontinued the shuttle program? He replies they did, but they liked my resume with limited work experience. Also, the hiring manager is my fraternity brother!

Now, you question your mid-level manager position with room for exponential growth that not only sustains you, but allows you to pay for overpriced brunch every Sunday with people you don’t like, but can tolerate with bottomless mimosas. Life is no longer a movie as your Instagram caption suggests.

Using others as benchmarks could be a best practice if done scientifically and if the comparison is grounded in logic, not emotion. But who has time for logic? Freak out!

We trod our own path, and those tracks vary from peers, so life comparisons are rarely the best option. Trust me.

6) Quiet time isn’t for talking! It is for listening. It is for planning. It is for pondering. It is for rest. It is for examination. It is for admiration. How many days did it take God to create the earth? Easy, seven. Wrong! It took six because on the seventh he rested and admired what he created. Trick question, I know; but here is the thing, sometimes God wants you to have a seat to recoup and reflect. You’ll be back in the game soon enough, LeBron. Embrace the bench and use the time to connect with your source and chill out.

7) What’s coming is better! Trust God.

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