I was in the car today when I first heard these lyrics from a song by Algebra Blessett:

 Once upon a time there was a damsel
where deep in the hood stood a castle
She often sit on a stoop watching ghetto youth…
She dreamed of a day her knight would come through…
To take her away from the heartache and the pain
to a world she never knew
It’s the same old story…
Girl wants to be rescued
From all the hard times
You can be prince charming
I’ll be Cinderella
Don’t want a fairy tale
Just give me happy after
For days on end she tries to pretend
Like with her there is nothing wrong
But although she tries
You can see the tracks from the tears she cries
all night long
and she constantly wishes
for the house and the picket fence
the big back yard
and she hopes one day that her prince will take her away
to a life that ain’t so hard…
(Happy After by A. Blessett, 2008)

 As I listened, the vision I got of this young woman waiting for her prince resonated with recent conversations I’ve had on the idea of women desiring to be rescued.  I think somewhere deep inside of us women, we desire to have prince charming swoop us up in his arms and carry us off to a place and circumstance that is more complete.  One that is better than our current experience today.  In the recently popular book Captivating, Stasi Elderidge brings this idea to the surface as she describes how many of us women, as little girls, played games where we pretended to be a beauty or princess kidnapped by bad guys, fought for and rescued by a hero.  She states that many of us are embarrassed to admit this about ourselves, but when we’re honest and open up, we find out just how many of us women have had this desire within our hearts.  No wonder we identify and fall in love with the classic princess movies like Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast.  I would say that for women, this “little girl” game, is a deep and true desire that is planted in our very being.  It’s a desire that may be placed there by God and met by God, both in an earthly sense, but also in an eternal sense through Christ.      

 For many of us, that desire never goes away.  In her song, Algebra sheds light on a woman’s desire to escape tangible realities that may have defined her life to that point.  This probably isn’t the case for many of us.  Many of us come from very nice families.  We had stable homes with parents that loved each other.  Maybe we’ve always had the “picket fence and big back yard”, but deep inside something about the song still resonates with the un-met desires we have.  Even with blessings that surround us, we can’t deny that at the end of the day, we still long for that “rescue”. 

 Before I continue I want to make one thing clear.  As Christians, yes, our longing and desires should be for the Lord first and foremost (I’ve written on this in the past and didn’t want to spend any extensive amount of time on this point, I assume it to be a given).  A man or a relationship should never replace that which God can do or fill for us.  Many who are in relationships or who are married will speak to the difficulties of not making idols of their kids and their husbands and their roles as mothers and wives.  For them, making God their God is a daily battle – and when it comes to children and a spouse, I imagine it’s hard to keep them 2nd to the Lord.  I often wonder if this has anything to do with Paul’s reasons for calling singleness as a gift (1 Corinthians 7:6-9)!!  I am a huge advocate that we need to seek first God and all that is Him, finding our identity in Him, finding our strength and Love and purpose in Him.  I would also speculate that having or wrestling with a desire does not equate to not seeking, believing, hungering after God.  One can earnestly seek after God, but still find unmet desires and longings crying out for attention in their lives.  One friend of mine might say that “God wants us to be hungry” 

 Before sin ever entered into the Bible, we find Adam who was in PERFECT communion with God.  What I mean by perfect is that EVERYTHING that Adam needed and wanted was perfectly met by God.  There were no distractions, there were no idols, and there was nothing but beautiful communion between Father and Son…God and Human.  In the few lines that we have to describe this time, we see nothing that leads us to believe that Adam was in want or need of anything.  Adam did not ask for a wife.  NO, it was God who said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” (Genesis 2:18).  It was then that Eve was created as a helper and companion for Adam.  Adam was in perfect relationship with God, and the all knowing God decides that a companion is needed – that should tell us something.  (In Genesis 3:16, God also states to Eve that as a result of the fall, her desires will be for her husband.  Like with the other punishments of sin, I speculate that this too has been passed down to us from her)    

 I 100% agree that our hearts must first chase after God’s heart and that we must look to him to fill these desires until He brings a partner into our lives, if that’s even part of His will for us.  But I also think that if we have a desire that is not being met in a tangible way, we need to own it and be honest about it with ourselves and those who are closest to us (friends, accountability, prayer partners, etc.)  Encourage each other to seek God, but also recognize that these desires may be normal!!  Encourage each other to not become pre-occupied with or to force these desires to be met, but be willing to sit and listen and pray through the emotions that unmet desires often stir up within us.  We should remind each other that our waiting or God’s silence with regards to an unmet desire is not God’s rejection, but is just His Sovereignty taking its course in our lives.    

 For many of us, the specific desire to be rescued is very real.  I wonder if even married women, or those in relationships still long for the romance that seems to surround our ideas of being rescued.  As each of us sit on our stoops, watching, waiting, hoping, praying…let us not lose sight that our ultimate prince has already arrived!  We were created to be in perfect union with God.  We live in a world that is apart from God because of sin.  We are longing to be rescued because our souls know and cry out that this, what we see around us, this can’t be all there is!!  There is something in us that hungers for God…there is something about creation around us that longs for and points to a creator.  God has placed eternity in the hearts of men (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  In some incomprehensible way, God has placed a hunger for something more deep within us and I wonder if this is any relation to our desire for “rescue”.  Knowing that we, on our own merit, could not right the wrongs that had been committed, I wonder if God also placed that desire for a “rescuer” in our hearts as well.  (I can only “wonder” at this point because I’m not exactly sure how, if at all, Scripture points to this specific idea outside of the verses I have included in this post.  Hey! I’m still learning).  In an eternal sense we can hope for the “Happy After” when we realize the grace that is so freely given to us from God.  Our prince has come and we have been rescued by Christ!  We should rejoice in that!  Amen!

 When we’re honest, even with our eyes set on Christ, I know that many of us still find ourselves in periods of loneliness and longing on this side of heaven.  We are women who seek God, but also long for a companion to share life with.  We long for a family.  We long to be “rescued” on this side of heaven as well.

 I personally can’t find the words to make that loneliness go away, it is only God who meets me in those moments, and it is God who can best meet you, if you give Him the opportunity to step in.  I can relate however – I fight feelings of “aloneness” and loneliness more often than I’d like to admit – even in times when I’m doing really well with God.  I think God wants this for me…to somehow reveal His Glory.  It’s hard, but I trust Him with my life – the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I can sympathize with the unmet desires that many of us have.  As a friend recently put is, I’m a few months shy of being “3 years from 30″.  I’m single.  I’m an orphan.  I have no siblings.  Trust me when I say desires for a family and a companion run deep in my heart.  Not to beat a dead horse, I am waiting for a “rescue”.  I am confident that eternally I have been rescued by Christ, but I’d be lying if I said my heart longed for nothing more…at least on this side of heaven.  Like so many of my friends, and maybe even a few reading this…I am learning what it means to wait.  I’m learning that waiting is easier said than done.  I’m also learning that waiting is not passive; we’re not waiting for life to begin when XYZ happens.  NO!  We are waiting for XYZ, but until then we are watching ABC unfold and grow.  I know this because waiting is active and, as Henri Nouwen puts it, “it is nurturing the growth of something within”.  Waiting is hard, it has weight in our lives…but it also has power and impact that we usually only see in hindsight.  

 If you’ve made it this far, I want to thank you for reading through my ramblings…I’ve finally gotten to the good part, the real meat that I wanted to share with all those who are waiting.  Whether it be for an open door, for a new job, for graduation, a school/program acceptance letter, and especially for those waiting for their rescue, rejoice in the fact that you’re not waiting alone…and that more than you can ever see or realize is happening as you wait…even this very moment God is moving.  He has not forgotten you or abandoned you.  Claim that truth today!    

 In John 11:1-45 we find the telling of the story of Lazarus, his death, and how his family was forced to wait on Jesus.  Henry Blackaby describes this scene beautifully in his book Experiencing God. 

 “One morning I was reading the story of the death of Lazarus (John 11:1-45).  Let me go through the sequence of what happened as I read.  John reported that Jesus loved Lazarus, Mary, and Martha.  Have received word that Lazarus was sick unto death, Jesus delayed going until Lazarus died.  In other words, Mary and Martha asked Jesus to come help their brother, and there was silence.  All the way through the final sickness and death of Lazarus, Jesus did not respond.  They received no response from the One who said he loved Lazarus.  Jesus even said he loved Mary and Martha.  Yet, there was still no response. “

 Lazarus died.  They went through the entire funeral process.  They fixed his body, put him in the grave, and covered it with a stone.  Still they experienced silence from God.  Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Lets go”.

 “When Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been dead four days.  Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died (v.32)”

 “Then the spirit of God began to help me understand something.  It seemed to me as if Jesus had said to Mary and Martha, “You are exactly right. If I had come, your brothers would not have died.  You know that I could have healed him, because you have seen me heal many, many times.  If I had come when you asked me to, I would have healed him.  But you would have never known any more about Me than you already know.  I knew that you were ready for a greater revelation of Me than you have ever known in your life.  I wanted you to come to know that I am the resurrection and the life.  My refusal and My silence were not rejection.  It was an opportunity for me to disclose to you more of Me than you have ever known. (94)”

 We may be waiting for days, months, and even years; for some that earthly rescue may never come.  In light of the eternal love and protection that we are promised my prayer is that we can rest peacefully trusting our God with all things.  Even as we wait, I pray that the weight would rest on the shoulders of our Lord and that He would continue to use the time to reveal more of Him to us…in ways we never dreamed imaginable.