Tuesday, April 13, 2021

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Katie Snipes Lancaster

Scripture: Romans 8:25
If we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Spiritual Practice: Waiting
There has been a collective, global waiting these last 13 months. Not that our waiting has been “quietly sitting in the waiting room.” No, our waiting has not been soft and gentle and full of peace. There has been turmoil of every kind, personally, communally, nationally, internationally. While something has been gained, it has shown us how hard it is to wait. Wait for hospital surges to go down; wait for a vaccine to arrive; wait for everyone in your household to be vaccinated; wait for the nation to be vaccinated; wait for vaccinations within the poorest countries hardest hit with the least capacity to mobilize. It has been a litany of waiting.

Waiting means a loss of control; a sense that we do not have as much power as we might think. Waiting tests us, our patience, our ability to control our anger (I guess there is some “control” in waiting). It gives us room to consider if we truly want what we are waiting for.

● What has the “waiting” of the last year taught you?
● In what ways have you met God in the waiting?
● Does this season of waiting help you “wait for God”?
● Does this year’s waiting make you search more urgently for God?
● Can waiting be a spiritual practice? In what ways?

Daily Prayer
God, being kept waiting
can arouse remarkable rage within us,
even us fairly pleasant people.
If we had all the time in the world,
maybe it wouldn’t matter much,
but we don’t have all the time in the world.
Time flies; it departs as swiftly as a bird and then it is gone.
This is our human vulnerability.
So teach us to wait.
Let us wait on you.
Be with us in the waiting.
Amen.