Waiting

Busyness--always rushing to get things done--can be an addiction that hides from us the truth of what's going on in our souls. To this I plead guilty! The Bible speaks a great deal about waiting. "Wait on the Lord," it says. That sounds almost quaint. Spiritual waiting requires down time, quiet time, eyes-open-mouth-closed time. I feel as though these months of waiting to see what the cancer will do to me, or else what God will do to my cancer, are a kind of enforced waiting that can open new insights and bring benefits of growth if I will respond hungrily to the waiting.

Sue Monk Kidd asks, "What has happened to our ability to dwell in unknowing, to live inside a question and coexist with the tensions of uncertainty? Where is our willingness to incubate pain and let it birth something new?" (I think the answer to her question is that we hide behind busyness, but it was, of course, a rhetorical question.) Thomas Merton said, "The imagination should be allowed a certain amount of time to browse around." And finally, a quote from a novel by Susan Howatch: "Our identity is being forged in the crucibl of whatever sufferings turn otu to be inextricable from the particular journey of each person . . . into fullness of life."

It would be interesting to list all the ways in which circumstances impose waiting on each one of us. It would be even more interesting to see, by faith, the growth that waits for us if we'll dive intentionally into the depths of the waiting and look up to see the face of God. (Could this even mean sometimes turning off the car radio and entering redemptively into a stop light's enforced wait?) Hoo boy! These are heavy thoughts. I do want to learn to wait well.

We had lots of family members traveling yesterday, and we're thankful for safety for each one. Daughter Sue's flight to Knoxville (she's to be a nurse for the youth conference Jeremy is going to) had a layover here, so we picked her up and enjoyed an early lunch together. She brought fresh photos of our great-grandson Joshua, whose family had been with her the day before. He's so grown up. Karin and her children arrived safely back in Indiana, and her husband returned from a business trip a couple of hours later. Jeremy and his bicycling bunch arrived at the day's destination, and now have only two more short days of travel to Knoxville. A couple of days ago, a motorist came from behind--distracted, obviously--and saw the bikers almost too late. They heard the scream of his brakes just before he passed them, skidding sideways, in the turn lane. Gasp!

Now I can't wait any longer; it's time to get ready for church. Have a great day. I'm remembering that the words we hear, say, and sing as we gather in church reveal our view of God. (Maybe that's true all day every day.)

Have a great day.
Carol