I've waited so long. Nothing's changed. I'm tired of hoping.

Waiting long enough makes hoping itself feel foolish, so you stop to protect yourself. Solomon did not soften it — he called the sickness by its name, and then finished the sentence anyway. What is coming is not a relief. It is something rooted, that had to be given time to grow.

The conversation

The child: “Daddy God, I've waited so long. Nothing's changed. I'm tired of hoping.”

God: “'Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.' Not annoying. Sick. I take that seriously.”

The child: “Then why is it taking so long?”

God: “Abraham waited twenty-five years. Joseph thirteen. All of them asked what you're asking.”

God: “Solomon didn't stop there: 'when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.'”

The child: “What do I do with the sickness meanwhile?”

God: “Bring it here. Don't perform faith you don't feel. Say it plainly.”

God: “Delayed isn't denied. A tree of life doesn't grow overnight.”

The child: “What if it never comes?”

God: “Then what comes will be better than what you asked for.”

The child: “So the waiting has a purpose?”

God: “Joseph couldn't rule Egypt without the prison. Waiting isn't the obstacle. It's the preparation.”

The child: “My heart is sick. But I'm still here.”

God: “And the desire will come.”

"Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life." Proverbs 13:12, KJV