My daughter is a junior in high school and has no idea what she wants to do with the rest of her life. And she’s feeling a bit pressured about it. The pressure is not from us but it’s pressure nonetheless.
She bounces back and forth between a being teacher and a dental hygienist and an electrician among other things. And she always comes back to, “I have no idea.”
Most recently, she’s talked about doing a gap year and is exploring options like YWAM, which I’m all for. A gap year is a period of time, typically one year, where a student stops being a student and travels or volunteers. It’s a time where nothing is happening in their academic life.
“Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born. When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said…” (Genesis 16:16-17:1)
When Abram was eighty-six years old, Ishmael was born and one verse later the Lord appeared to him again to talk to him about the promise, only this time Abram is ninety-nine years old.
We don’t even pause reading from one verse to another. We can read them both in a matter of seconds, but in reality there’s a thirteen-year gap between those two verses.
There were thirteen years of nothingness in Abram and Sarai’s life. Their journals were empty. They probably wrote, “Nothing to speak of here.” Thirteen years of Sarai not having a baby. Thirteen years of, “When, God, when?”
This gap was filled with thirteen years of unanswered prayers and unfulfilled promises. Ever been there? Are you there now?
The next five chapters cover a timespan of one year and there was a flurry of activity. God changed their names. They entertained angels. And Sarah received her own promise of having a baby. All of it culminated in what we read in the first couple verses of Genesis 21.
“The Lord visited Sarah as He said, and the Lord did for her as He had promised. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Abraham…”
Thirteen years of nothing. A flurry of activity. Then boom, promise fulfilled.
Trusting God means trusting His timing, even when there’s nothing happening that we can see.
I don’t know why sometimes there are gaps, timespans of nothingness filled with the discouragement of unanswered prayers and the disillusionment of unfulfilled promises. But if you’re reading this today, if you’re alive and still breathing on this earth, you may just be experiencing a gap year. Or two. Or thirteen.
I’ve been there. More than once I bought that t-shirt. But He still saw me in the waiting. He was with me in that unfilled space and His Word and His presence were a steady anchor through it all.
If we look back on this season for Sarah through the eyes of author of Hebrews, we get a peek into how she survived those gap years.
“By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.” (Hebrews 11:11 nkjv)
The Amplified Classic Version says, “…she considered [God] Who had given her the promise to be reliable and trustworthy and true to His word.”
You may be experiencing a gap year (or thirteen gap years) where nothing to speak of is happening and you’re tempted to doubt that those promises will ever come to pass. Draw strength by doing what Sarah did. By faith, consider the One who gave you the promise to be reliable and trustworthy and true to His Word. Because He is.
He’s not done writing your story yet. Or mine. You’re probably just between verses right now. Hold steady. God will do for you all that He has promised.
