Eastertime - Waiting

"Wait for the Lord and He will deliver you."
~ Proverbs 20:22

I can't begin to list just how many hospice patients tell me, "I'm just waiting to die," when I ask them, "How are you doing?"

Life is such an interesting journey.  I can remember times when I have been "waiting for the right moment," "couldn't wait any longer," or asking, "how much longer do I have to wait?"

Waiting is about giving up our own control, and instead allow for time to step in.  One of the things we forget is that while we are "waiting," life is still going on around us.  Years ago after suffering a prolonged illness, I discovered that the world seemed to have "run past me," while I was "waiting," for healing to take place.  A year later, when I was finally able to return to work, the world just seemed to be running at such a fast pace that it took me months to finally feel as if I was keeping pace.

I am always drawn to remember that waiting is practicing hope and letting go of expectations.  So much in life we seem to hear the words, "All in God's timing," while building on a foundation of hope that what we are waiting for will be exactly what we need.  Psalm 62:5 reminds, "Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in God.”

The moment is full with possibility. We refuse to think that it’s best if we can control it.

We let God do what God will do – avoiding any drama we might otherwise create, while we wait upon what is certain, true, and wonderful. In all this – in our difficult, counter intuitive, radical “waiting project”, we experience more rather than less of what God has for us as we cast aside our useless wishes, and hope in his promises.

Jesus suggested that each day we pray “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Why then, shouldn’t we expect God to enter the moments and circumstances of each day “on earth” while we wait?

Why wouldn’t the moments be full, when we know that God is answering this and so many other prayers of others? Why wouldn’t the moments be full when God's work of redeeming this planet of ours – and its people – continues?  I am reminded that even while we wait, life is "going on."

The Kingdom Of God is yet to come, but at the same time continues to arrive “in our midst” – on this day, in this place – where I am. And so I wait.

Stay in God's grip!

​G. Todd Williams (c) 2020