“Waiting isn’t an uninvolved twiddling of thumbs because you have felt it: Waiting is a herculean widening of everything within you into a canyon — that can fill with a rising ocean of hope. Hope is never passive or stagnant, but always rising.”- Ann Voskamp
“Waiting does not diminish us. . . . We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy. Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along.”- Romans 8:24-26 (MSG)
As Ann Voskamp moves along in Chapter 6 of WayMaker, she underscores that the sacrament of waiting often feels like the hardest of all. Because, as you wait for the right time, it tends to feel like everything is going wrong.
However, Ann exhorts, know that waiting also involves a letting go to let something grow. Consequently, the waiting need not destroy the soul. Rather, waiting grows the soul. Above all, something happens the longer the heart waits. In the process, Ann states, the heart expands. It now holds the largeness of a different way of life.
Therefore, Ann encourages:
“Nothing is lost in the waiting process. Because all waiting is a growth process. Waiting is gestating a greater grace. . . . Waiting is the sacrament of tender surrender, and this is the art of a soul growing large.”
In addition, the author stresses, waiting is passion, loving enough to suffer. Thus, it’s never passive. And Eugene Peterson, writing in God’s Message for Each Day, defines waiting in prayer as a disciplined refusal to act before God acts.
Finally, as you wait still and wait to hear God still, walk forward, step by step. And as you hunger to taste and see that your own way is good, tell yourself that life = letting go. Letting go of your plan, dreams, map, and vision. For it’s the Father’s will, His way.
Today’s question: Do you find waiting an uninvolved twiddling of thumbs? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: ‘Your communion with God”
