I recently saw something that had me thinking ‘wait, let the dust settle, just wait‘. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a very sandy or dusty area, the safari in Kenya or sand beach in Dubai does not count, I mean a very sandy place where you cannot even see the person a few steps from you.

I’ve experienced it once, it was a heavy sandy whirl wind and all I could do was go down and hold my hands against my eyes so that the sand didn’t fly in, even in that state, I felt movement around me, I heard people shouting other people’s names and I heard stumbles and falls like I’ve never done before. I think with time, everyone coded that as panicked as we all were, the best action in that moment was to stay in one place, keep your eyes safe and wait, till the dust settled.

Until the dust settled, vision remained blurred, movement proved difficult and nothing seemed certain.

It is same with life, we experience things we never thought we’d experience before, we face failures we never thought we’d encounter and we’re sometimes hit in areas we were sure we were well grounded, and usually, when this happens, you find that we want to recover fast, put ourselves back together and get things in order before people even notice and start to ask questions.

When we do that, we’re not even aware but were operating in the dust, meaning we’re not seeing clearly enough to make the best judgements. We’re not patient enough to evaluate the cause of the fall before we resume building again.

It is important that we learn to take steps back to evaluate things, we can’t and shouldn’t ever be in a rush to do. Even the bible speaks of a man sitting down and counting costs to build a house before embarking on that journey (Luke 14:28). Sometimes, all some of us need is to take a step back. Allowing the dust settle gives us fresh perspectives and other strategies on how to achieve the same task.

Just a reminder not to try building in the dust, to honestly wait for it to settle and then carry on. If your fear is that people will talk, just remember that even if it worked out, they would still talk. The thoughts and talk of people should never be strong enough to stifle your moves. Live a life for an audience of One. Often you’ll find that, that One, will place you in audiences of numerous people but in the end all that will matter is His own nod in the affirmative.