Have you ever felt this way? 

Like you’re a bird, sitting and waiting on a streetlight on red. 

You see so many other birds flying freely and happily around you, busy about their business.

But you… you feel stuck on your red streetlight, longing for it to change to green so that you too can finally fly away. 

You want to fly to a new home, a new relationship, a new job, a new purpose in life, a new future - because you feel bound and trapped where you currently are and how you currently live. 

 

Why does it take so long, this light-change?

Will it ever change?

Why is the light seemingly green for everyone else, but red for me?

Should I just ignore the red light, and fly away anyway?

 

How hard, how desperately difficult, it is to accept the red lights in our lives - to just sit, to be still and quiet, to wait patiently… when we so long for those red lights to turn to green so we too can fly. 

 

Friend: you are not alone - many people, past and present, have felt and still feel this way. 

 

"I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.

I would flee far away and stay in the desert;

I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm.”

~Psalm 55:6-8

 

“How long, Lord?

Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?…

Look on me and answer, Lord my God.

Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death… 

But I trust in Your unfailing love;

my heart rejoices in Your salvation.

I will sing the Lord’s praise, for He has been good to me.”

~Psalm 13

 

Red lights, unless they are broken, will always at some point turn to green.

To us, the time of waiting seems way too long.

We feel forgotten, unseen, unheard, unanswered in our questioning and wrestling and daily sorrow. 

But the LORD’s unfailing love is trustworthy.

His sure salvation brings heart-joy.

He is worthy of praise, for He has been and is good to us. 

 

So friend: hang in there - don’t give up.

Keep sitting and waiting - and trusting that your red light will one day, when it is best for you, turn to green and allow you to take flight. 

+ REFLECTIONS