Do you Linger?

What does it mean to linger? Looked it up and found: To remain or stay on in a place longer than is usual or expected, as if from reluctance to leave. Do you find that you ever do this lingering thing? Just staying a little longer after the show is over. You know when the credits roll after a movie? Sometimes those are the best missed shots of the whole thing! I have sat through shows before that moved me so much that I found I could not leave.


Do we ever do that after a church service? I mean really? Has it ever so moved you that you just sat there, not listening to your stomach, but just trying to take more of it in? We are so busy with our own lives and filling them, that we don't take the time to linger, maybe ever.


I find that I'm lingering lately. We will roll out of the driveway at 3903 W. Olive in 25 days. Something that I have waited a long time for! Yet I find that I'm lingering in the time left. I'm saying yes to lunches, even on short notice because I want to sit with these people. I'm looking at the yards when I run pass them in the mornings and if someone is out there, I say Good morning! I'm looking people in the eye and smiling at them, in order to remember them maybe.


These two years have been my deepest growing to date. I have learned about abiding, lingering, waiting, being, staying, and surrendering. I have immersed myself in the stillness of God and what he has in mind when he says Be still and know and it has been amazing. 


It could have only happened here, in this place that didn't see me, didn't really care what I had to offer. I was seen by a few, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't what I thought it was going to be and now, I'm glad. I have grown so much because of it. My root have gone so deep, but you can't tell from what stands above the ground. 


So I linger. I remember and hold close to my heart who was here for me, how I was treated, what true hospitality looked like, and I smile. Not because God is good, because he is, but because this was His plan all along! So I will linger for a few more days in the glow of what He showed me, that could have only happened here.