Peace in Waiting

Advent is a time of waiting and it can be an invaluable time of rest and deep reflection, a time to wipe the slate clean and clear out the old so we can walk into a new year feeling ready to grow and move forward without a bag of boulders on our back or chains around our ankles tied to the caves of our soul.  It is time for the medicine of story, of intervening light, of nourishment and love. Advent is a period of reconnecting, relearning and reclaiming what this time truly means and establishes it as a time of kindness, love, rebirth, peace and unburdening instead of a time of busyness, dread, fear, depression and avoidance.  We should take the time to ponder the question, “What are we waiting for in our lives?”

Most people believe that waiting is a waste of time and it’s best to fill that time with something.  Anything! Whether we’re in line at the grocery store, waiting at a doctor’s office, or sitting in traffic, our brain seems to be cued to fill that space.  Many of us pull out our phones and begin sifting through various messages, reading over documents, or surfing the web. However, the belief that waiting has no value is mistaken. In fact, the secret to a sense of personal control, general satisfaction with life and even our success lies in learning how to make peace with waiting.

We’ve all heard the famous adage, “Patience is a virtue” or “Good things come to those who wait.”

What if we were to practice being on the lookout for moments of waiting throughout our day and in those moments, instead of grabbing something to fill the space, recognized it as an opportunity to be okay with just waiting.  Try to soften the muscles in our bodies that have just tensed due to the experience we are having.

In doing this, we can strengthen self-control, trust in our self and more importantly trust in God. When we are able to stop filling up time with stuff, we feel more relaxed in life. We can free ourselves from the delusion of immediacy, grasping, and need, and open up to a sense of ease, contentment, and confidence.

Our own personal longings, those things for which we pray to God and wait on God’s answer, are valid, but we must also remind ourselves that God’s promised fulfillment of our longings are always intended for healing and reconciliation in the larger community. We must ask ourselves how we can hold vigil for the groaning of humanity that is larger and more expansive than our own. How do we connect our personal stories with the master story and stay open to being used to accomplish what God is doing in the world?

So where does this leave us? How should we think about the things for which we are personally longing and waiting for? What does God’s desire for a reconciled and healed world have to do with our desire for children, relationship, vocational fulfillment, and other yearnings? These can be uncomfortable questions because they lack easy or definitive answers. There is nothing wrong with having our particular desires and prayerfully laying them before God. We were created to flourish in the gift of God’s world while waiting for the fullness of the kingdom. Yet we always should remain open to having our desires trumped by what God may invite us into for the sake of helping foster God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

The underlying peace in waiting is found when we surrender our will and let God’s desires speak into ours. Please join us for Prayer Lab on Saturday December 14^th from 10:00-11:30am in the Chapel to explore practices of Peace in this Advent season.