Shaped By Waiting

As our technological prowess has grown, humans have become much less tolerant of waiting. We can heat our food within a few minutes in a microwave oven, contact almost anyone at any time with our electronic devices, and access information instan-taneously through the World Wide Web. These abilities that we take for granted today would have been seen as marvels a mere 50 years ago. However, we have paid a price for living in an age of instant gratification; we have lost the ability to be shaped by waiting.

Most of us can look back at our life and offer thanks that we did not receive something we once fervently desired, such as a job or a relationship that would have consumed us, wealth that would have corrupted us, or fame that would have alienated us from family and friends. Waiting gives us the opportunity to mature in our vision of the good life and clarify what we need to thrive.

Waiting gives us time to prepare for a role that awaits us, as a woman begins to learn how to be a mother while awaiting the birth of her first child. Waiting also confers patience and trust that God will bless us, as shown in the stories of Abraham and Sarah who waited for a son, the Israelites who waited to be led to the Promised Land, and the disciples of Jesus who waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

We learn things while we wait: how to calm ourselves when we feel anxious, how to conserve water while we wait for rain, how to listen while we wait for God to speak. We also learn that we are not in control, which is an important lesson in humility and an opportunity to practice dying to self.

Although we don’t spend nearly as much time waiting as our ancestors did, life still gives us plenty of opportunities to be shaped by waiting, be it slow election returns, electrical outages, or the prolonged death of a loved one from cancer. Waiting always has and always will be one of the building blocks of our humanity; instead of resisting it, we should consider it a teacher and trust that it offers us a gift in disguise.