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Learning To Wait

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
— Psalm 130:5-6 —

We don’t like to wait.  Waiting has a bad reputation.  Whether it’s waiting in line, waiting for food, sitting in a “waiting room” or waiting for the copy machine to warm up so the “please wait” message will go off.  Whatever the cause we don’t like to wait.  And so, we often choose the alternative to waiting …

“What have you been doing lately?”
“Trying to keep busy.”

Busyness.

Is it really a good guideline for our time, or measurement of our worth?  The fact is, busyness smothers stillness.  And stillness … waiting … resting in God’s presence … is praised in scripture.

But what is waiting?  Is it leaning back in your rocking chair wondering if anything is going to happen?  Do you accidentally fall into waiting when you run out of other things to do?

No, according to scripture, you choose to wait.  You consciously give God a yielded moment.  In this psalm there is neither a skeptical hope that wonders if the dawn will ever come, nor a domineering spirit that tries to drag the sun over the horizon.  No, this waiting is filled with confidence and patience.

And then, once the sun up and the world is illuminated, all you have to do is look around at God’s creation.  Waiting is everywhere.  Creation knows how to wait.

“This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain — first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

— Mark 4:26-29

You see, plants don’t mind waiting.  They wait for the sun.  They wait for the rain.  And the point of Jesus’ story is that God grows in our lives when, like the plants, we learn to wait. He grows powerfully through small beginnings and gradual growth.  He grows constantly through patient waiting and confident trusting.  He grows in our lives when we are willing to wait.  Are you willing to wait?

Take a few moments today and give God that yielded moment.  Find a place to be quiet and still.  Tell the world you’ll be out a bit later, but that right now, you’re learning to wait.

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The Clock Is My Dictator

The clock is my dictator
I shall not rest.

It makes me lie down
only when exhausted.

It leads me to deep depression.
It hounds my soul.

It leads me in circles of frenzy
for activity’s sake.

Even though I run
frantically from task to task,
I will never get it all done.

For my “ideal” is with me.
Deadlines and my need for approval,
they drive me.

They demand performance from me
beyond the limits of my schedule.

They anoint my head with migraines.
My in-basket overflows.

Surely fatigue and time pressure
shall follow me all the day of my life.

– In Discipleship Journal
by Marcia Hornok

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Artificial Time

I’m not exactly sure how I feel about my thinking on this topic. I’m not sure where I will land. I’m not even sure what to call these wandering thoughts. But I have given a lot of thinking to the subject, so consider this a draft.

It’s not really about artificial light or manufactured energy or propped up activity, although these are certainly on the same team. I guess I might call it “Artificial Time.” This thought comes to me whenever I leave my own culture of extended hours. When I visit my friends in West Africa I quickly notice that our day is more likely to slow down and come to an end when the sun goes down. The time of activity is not artificially extended. We shift into a lower, slower gear. Physical activity gives way to quiet conversations, and eventually to silence and sleep. Yes, there is electricity in the remote area where I visit. And, of course, there is a lot of artificial light in the large city two hours away. But even there, in the capital of that country, I notice that the city lights are dim, as our jumbo jet lands in the evening hours. Not so, in Dallas. When my West African friend, Isaac visited me two years ago, his plane landed at night. His first question had to do with the bright lights he saw from his window as he descended. We discovered that he was referring to the many car dealerships that brightly light up the night sky, not to mention the businesses that proudly advertise “we never close.”

If time were not artificially manipulated, when would we begin our sleep, and how long would it last? When would noise subside and silence carve out an end of the day time of reflection and evaluation? As it is, there is no time to think or reflect. Not only is the time awake artificially extended (which means that the time  of sleep is artificially shortened), but it’s not given to thought or creativity. We are not actually thinking our own thoughts. No, we have asked the networks to decide what we should think about, and they, in turn, have been told by the advertisers what messages, themes, values and questions we should ponder.

Last week the power went out at my house. I walked outside and confirmed that the whole neighborhood was dark. There was nothing else to do, so we began to prepare for bed. Then, just few minutes before turning in, the power suddenly came back on. I honestly wish that we had correctly guessed and successfully turned off all the lights in our house, because when they came back on, I gave in to artificial time.  I got back up. And I stayed up longer than natural time would have allowed.

I don’t know if artificial time has helped us. Not if we sleep less, reflect and meditate less, and operate on less real energy. Not if we walk and talk less. Not if we sit the same room with those we love having no heartfelt conversations. Maybe its time to have less artificial time.

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Time Management

makes_eat_timeA good thought from Anthony Bloom:

There is absolutely no need to run after time to catch it. it does not run away from us, it runs towards us. Whether you are intent on the next minute coming your way, or whether you are completely unaware of it, it will come your way. The future, whatever you do about it, will become the present, and so there is no need to try to jump out of the present into the future. … the mistake we often make with our inner life is to imagine that if we hurry we will be in our future sooner … Yet that is what prevents us from being completely in the present moment, which I dare say is the only moment in which we can be, because even if we imagine that we are ahead of time or ahead of ourselves, we are not. The only thing is that we are in a hurry.

— Beginning to Pray (page 82)

“It will come your way.”

Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Numbering my days requires pacing, building boundaries, fully utilizing, learning to say “no” to good things so I can say “yes” to better things. And all of this requires careful thought, which slows me down, which helps me to see and hear, which makes me much more capable and ready, which takes me closer to that much needed “heart of wisdom.”