What Are You Doing While You Wait?

I got there early.

So early that I was the only person at the bus station.

And somehow, I still almost missed the bus.

At the time, I was building my travel business—or at least, I was supposed to be.

I had started with excitement. I was showing up, learning, and trying to understand what Yahweh wanted to do through it. But when the business didn’t produce the way I expected, discouragement crept in.

What began with consistency slowly became something I barely touched.

I couldn’t see how it connected to my purpose, so I stopped treating it like preparation.

Then one night, Yahweh gave me a dream.

I arrived at a bus station long before the bus was scheduled to come. No one else was there. With so much time to spare, I laid my head on my bookbag and went to sleep.

When I woke up, the station was crowded.

Shortly after, the bus arrived.

Everyone rushed to form a line. Wanting to avoid the crowd, I let them move ahead of me and waited at the back.

Eventually, I reached the steps of the bus.

The driver looked at me and asked, “Do you have your bus pass?”

I didn’t.

I hadn’t even realized I needed one.

The driver told me he couldn’t let me board without it. I would have to walk all the way back to the clerk to get a pass—and there was a good chance the bus would leave before I returned.

I walked away angry with myself.

I had arrived early enough to prepare for the journey, but instead, I slept the time away.

Now I was at risk of missing something I had been early for.

Then I woke up to Yahweh asking me:

“What are you doing while you wait? Are you preparing for where you’re about to go?”

That question convicted me immediately.

I realized I had mistaken waiting for empty time.

Because I couldn’t see obvious results, I thought nothing was happening. Because the travel business wasn’t producing the way I expected, I stopped recognizing it as training.

But Yahweh wasn’t only building a business.

He was building me.

The travel business was teaching me how to show up without immediate applause. How to remain consistent without visible evidence. How to follow instructions before I understood where they were leading.

I was measuring the season by profit.

Yahweh was measuring it by preparation.

He showed me that I needed to give this assignment the same effort I would have given any position someone else hired me to fulfill. The difference was that this time, He was my trainer.

He was preparing me for where I was going and supervising my progress along the way.

The bus pass wasn’t the promise.

It was what I needed to carry the promise well.

That dream taught me that arriving early does not automatically mean being ready. Proximity to an opportunity is not the same as preparation for it.

You can be standing at the right stop, watching the right bus approach, and still be unprepared to board.

And sometimes, the danger isn’t that you missed your moment.

It’s that discouragement convinced you to sleep through the preparation for it.

Waiting is not always a punishment.

Sometimes it is mercy.

It is Yahweh giving us time to develop the discipline, wisdom, character, and capacity required for the place we keep asking Him to take us.

This isn’t an invitation to panic, force movement, or exhaust ourselves trying to earn what He promised. Preparation with Yahweh doesn’t feel like fear screaming, “Hurry before you miss it!”

It sounds like clear instruction.

Show up today.

Learn this.

Steward what is already in your hands.

Take the next step.

Trust Me with the destination.

I still didn’t fully understand how the travel business connected to my purpose. But after that dream, I understood that it was connected to my preparation.

And I never looked at it the same way again.

Maybe you’ve been asking when your opportunity will come.

When the door will open.

When the promise will arrive.

But perhaps the question for this season isn’t, “When is the bus coming?”

Perhaps Yahweh is asking:

What are you doing while you wait?

Are you preparing for where you’re about to go?