After my previous post on waiting, the proverbial light bulb went on above my head and I realized I was missing an opportunity.
As a product of the '80s, I am not used to waiting. I live in a world that rarely waits for anything! I microwave my food, I can drive anywhere I want to go, and I have most of my desires met without much waiting. However, during this time of waiting, I find myself striving vigorously to make good use of this time. I could be knitting baby hats, training for a marathon or refinishing antique furniture while I wait. I may do some of that (not the knitting) but my main goal during this time is growth. It can take an extreme amount of discipline and contemplation to wait for something while knowing ultimately, you may never see it happen. However, to view waiting as passivity is a missed opportunity.
I heard one writer put it this way, "I had tended to view waiting as mere passivity. When I looked it up in my dictionary however, I found that the words passive and passion come from the same Latin root, pati, which means 'to endure.' Waiting is thus both passive and passionate. It's a vibrant, contemplative work. It means descending into self, into God, into the deeper labyrinths of prayer. It involves listening to disinherited voices within, facing the wounded holes in the soul, the denied and undiscovered, the places one lives falsely. It means struggling with the vision of who we really are in God and molding the courage to live that vision."
I don't know anything about the writer, but she got that part right. It is vibrant, contemplative work. And it's also hard work. However, it is not a trial to be overcome or simply bear. Waiting, if made useful, can be an intentional time of mental and spiritual discipline. Thus, I am grateful for the wait.
-Megan
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