The Slowburn: Learning to Live — and Thrive — in the Wait

Meta Description: Waiting isn't just a season you endure. It's an invitation to encounter God in ways you never imagined. Here's what I've been learning. URL Slug: slowburn-learning-to-live-in-the-wait Featured Image: A single stick of incense burning against a dark background, with a thin ribbon of smoke rising upward — simple, contemplative, and visually striking on mobile.

I want to ask you something honest: What are you waiting for right now?

Maybe it's healing. Maybe it's a relationship to be restored. Maybe it's an open door you've been praying about for longer than you want to admit. Whatever it is, I want you to know — you are not alone in the wait.

This past week, we had the incredible privilege of hearing from pastor and author DonSheree Wilkerson, and her message stopped me in my tracks. She opened with a life verse that was written into her Bible when she was just nine years old — Isaiah 40:31:

"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint."

She said something I haven't been able to shake since: "Waiting is not a season. Waiting is life." And if that's true — and I believe it is — then the real question becomes: Will you live in the wait?

Waiting Is Not the Enemy

Most of us treat waiting like a problem to be solved. We grit our teeth, white-knuckle it through the hard season, and hope we can just get to the other side. I've been there. Maybe you have too.

But DonSheree reframed everything when she said, "Waiting is not a curse. Waiting is an invitation — to experience the presence of God, to lean into his grace, to be formed by his good hands."

Charles Swindoll once wrote that we don't like waiting, but that's when God does some of his best work on our souls. I think that's exactly right. The waiting isn't wasted time. It's sacred time.

The Bonfire vs. The Slowburn

Here's an image that has stayed with me. We are conditioned by culture to live for the bonfire moments — the blazing, undeniable, everyone-can-see-it moments when God shows up and our prayers are answered and life makes sense. We hold our breath waiting for those moments.

But DonSheree asked a question that quietly rearranged something in me: What if following God looks less like a bonfire and more like smoke?

It's a slowburn.

In the Old Testament, God instructed his priests to burn incense on the altar every morning and every night. As the incense burned, something remarkable happened — a fragrance locked inside was released, filling the holy place and drifting for miles beyond the temple walls. The incense had to be placed on the altar before it could rise.

Romans 12:1 says: "I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship."

We want the spotlight. God wants the surrender. We want to be raised up. God is asking us to lay our lives down. And here's the miracle: what you lay on the altar, God raises to life.

You're Not the Fire

Maybe you're reading this feeling burned out. Exhausted from the wait. Wondering if your faith is even still lit.

I want to pass along some of the best news I heard this week: You are not the fire. You were never meant to be. God is the all-consuming fire. And any time — morning, night, or in the middle of a sleepless 3 a.m. — you can return to the altar, surrender again, and let him do what only he can do.

He will transform you from the inside out. He will renew your mind, heal your broken heart, and meet you exactly where you are.

The Fragrance You Carry

Here's something DonSheree said that I want you to sit with. She talked about how we often carry the fragrance of what others have done to us — the heartbreak, the betrayal, the shame, the words spoken over us since we were young.

But 2 Corinthians 2:14 tells us something different is possible:

"Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing."

When you surrender your life to Christ, old fragrances pass away. You begin carrying something new — the fragrance of faith, of goodness, of patience and kindness. People encounter you, and they can't quite put their finger on it. But they sense something. That's the slowburn at work.

Your Testimony Is Being Written Right Now

DonSheree shared her own story of walking through eight years of infertility — eight years of silence, of waiting, of watching others move forward while she stood still. And she said something I think is worth reading twice:

"I didn't write this message after I had children. I wrote it in the middle of the wait. Because the testimony of my life is not simply that God gave me children. The testimony of my life is that far before I ever had a child, God intervened in my wait. He woke me up with purpose. He gave me a destiny. He showed me — you're not waiting on a baby. You're waiting on me."

Your testimony is being written right now. Not just in the answered prayers, but in the faithfulness you choose today, in the middle of the unknown.

"I waited on God and I saw his providence. I waited on God and I saw his protection. I waited on God and I saw his faithfulness."

That can be your story too.

Keep Going — You Are Not Alone

One of the most practical things I want to encourage you with is this: don't isolate in the wait. DonSheree said it simply — the same people who prayed for her on one side of the miracle were the same ones who celebrated with her on the other side. You need community in the slowburn.

If you're in a season of waiting right now, I want to invite you to take a step toward connection. Join a Life Group. Plant yourself in community. You were not meant to do this alone, and you don't have to.

Whatever you're waiting for today — keep surrendering. Keep returning to the altar. The slowburn is doing something in you that you can't yet see.

And they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

Want to go deeper? Watch the full message from this week's Book Club series and share it with someone who needs to hear it. And if you're ready to take a next step in community, find a Life Group at life.church.

Social Media Excerpt (Facebook/Instagram): What if the waiting isn't the problem — what if it's the point? This week's message on "the slowburn" completely reframed how I think about the seasons when God feels silent. If you're in a hard wait right now, this one is for you. 🙏 Link in bio to read the full post.

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