I am fine waiting as long as I don't have to wait.

Cheesecake is arguably one of the most decadent things that has ever past these lips.  I. Love. Cheesecake.  The best part about it is that the cheesecake family is quite large.  The Cheesecake factory has two entire pages of flavors to try and they don’t even make every kind that exists.  So, I’ve got to know, what’s your favorite kind? Ready, go! Mine is all of them. Cheesecakes are creamy and sweet and after I finish a cheesecake-y treat, you will most likely find me melted on the floor.  The only way to revive me is probably more cheesecake, but then I will probably just melt on the floor yet again.  It’s a vicious cycle. Cheesecake, mouth, melt, floor, cheesecake, mouth, melt, floor, cheesecake… you get the idea.  So, I got the opportunity this week to have a little mini-visit up to camp to create some treats for the counselors to celebrate their last week of camp.  Treaty Tuesday fell on one of the days I was up there, so naturally I had to play it up big.  Red velvet cheesecake cupcakes with fresh whipped cream and chocolate garnishing were the natural choice.  I could have just left it at the red velvet cheesecake, but I had all last summer to fatten up the counselors with my baked goods and this year I had to do a summers work in three days.  This is a serious undertaking.  Fresh whipped cream was necessary.  Also, I had been watching YouTube videos about how to make chocolate garnishings (because that is a totally normal past time, right?) and knew that these cheesecakes would not be complete without them.
They turned out rockin’ sweet. See? All of the different garnishings were a result of me learning how to control the chocolate. 

The melted chocolate was telling me what shapes it wanted to make at first but then I finally learned to control it and make shapes.  I made a flower.  Precious, right? Thought so.

Cheesecake cupcakes were a great choice not just because of its deliciousness but because they take way less time and patience than a normal cheesecake baked in a spring-form pan.  A normal cheesecake is placed in a water bath, baked for like an hour, then the oven is turned off and no one is allowed to even think about opening the oven for at least 8 hours unless they want the wrath of me (which usually is not much of a wrath at all unless you open my oven while I am baking a cheesecake), the cheesecake is then left at room temperature, then placed in the fridge to cool.  That is a recipe demanding patience if I ever saw one.  Cheesecake cupcakes? Done in 20 minutes, left a room temperature for 20, then put in the fridge.  The time from oven to mouth is 4 hours.  Much faster. 

Sometimes I wish life had a cupcake version.  A way that you could achieve the end result by skipping a bunch of steps and not having to wait for life’s sweetest moments.  I am a dreamer.  I have a list of things I long to accomplish and if we are being honest, I would rather them be sooner than later.  I feel grateful about where God has brought me thus far and all that by His grace I have been allowed to achieve but I know that He has more in store.  I want to speed it up and get to that indulgent treat waiting for me but that is not His timing.  The process of getting to that point will require patience and refining of my character.  If my life is like this cheesecake, trying to accomplish all of my aspirations right here and right now would be like putting the cheesecake straight from the oven to the fridge.  The cheesecakes crack from the rapid cooling.  They have not undergone the process needed to create the proper conditions for a smooth cheesecake and they will not reach their utmost potential.  The waiting is essential. 

So here I am.  At the waiting place.  Here I know I am not alone.  Dr. Seuss talked of this place. “The waiting place… for people just waiting.  Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or a No or waiting for their hair to grow.  Everyone is just waiting.” But oh the places I’ll go.  God has great plans, of this I am sure.  So I’ll wait.

“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” Psalm 27:14