Waiting.

What are you waiting for?
What are you waiting for?
What are you waiting for?
What are you waiting for?
What are you waiting for?

Do you feel the difference with the different emphasis? Which phrase connected with you the most?

Waiting has been on my mind for over a month…

I put a show called "Waiting" up at the Glenrose rehabilitation hospital on Sept 27 reflecting on different aspects of waiting. It will be up until January 2. It is in the show cases on the basement level just outside the cafeteria.

“Waiting on the Lord” is the theme for the upcoming Art vocabulary for the Soul retreat (Nov 1-3) at the new Covenant Bay Bible Camp lodge. There are still a few places left. (register at CovenantBay.ca) I have songs and scripture selected to help us reflect and respond to with any art medium. This is a contemplative retreat that allows space for you to create, reflect and spend time with God.

Physically waiting for my shoulder to feel better – injured it the week after my son Nathaniel’s wedding. It has required a lot of resting, taking care of myself and just plain waiting to be able to go and do.  I have been forced to just “be.”

With all of this waiting, I have been able to rethink and reflect about the book on waiting that I was working on over four years ago but didn’t complete. I am finally ready to deal with some emotions and reactions I had during the editing process. I’ve learned some new things about waiting in the last few years. One thing I’ve learned is that I do not wait well. I want to run ahead. I want to “do” something. I can become impatient and bored if I cannot keep the goal or hope in front of me.  

On the phrases above, this is the one I resonate with: “What are you waiting for?” That is the impatient one to me – impatient with myself, with others, and impatient with God.

So often, I am like the Israelites in Isaiah 30: 15-18.

¹⁵ For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:
In returning and rest you shall be saved;
    in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.
But you refused ¹⁶ and said,
“No! We will flee upon horses”—
    therefore you shall flee!
and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”—
    therefore your pursuers shall be swift!
¹⁷ A thousand shall flee at the threat of one,
    at the threat of five you shall flee,
until you are left
    like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
    like a signal on a hill.
¹⁸ Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;
    therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
    blessed are all those who wait for him.
 
I am so thankful that God waits for me. He loves me. Twila Paris wrote a song with this line: “Could it be that He is only waiting there to see if I would learn to love the dream He has dreamed for me?”

Not only in learning to love the dream He has for me, but standing firm in the hear and now, in this present time, to let it come when it comes. Waiting on the Lord and trusting in Him and not running ahead on my own.

“I can’t imagine what the future holds, but I’ve already made my choice, and this is where I’ll stand until He moves me on, and I will listen to His voice” Twila Paris

How well do you wait?