Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practices - Blogs

November 25, 2013

Waiting

One of my least favorite things about working on a magazine or a writing story for my job at Trinity is waiting. Waiting on writers to send me their articles, waiting on people to return my calls, sometimes waiting for inspiration to hit. I’d rather do it all myself, quietly and steadily working in my office until the work is done.

Of course, this isn’t possible. My job (and probably yours, too), often reminds me that I am not in control.

Perhaps this is one of the messages of Advent, when we wait expectantly for Christmas and God to break into our lives again: that relationships are ultimately somewhat wild things, not completely tame, not totally ours to control, because they involve other people.

Churches, especially, are unruly creatures. A church, where so much is done by volunteers, is a place where we include people not because they are effective at getting things done to our specifications but because they are human beings. People who are busy, and may not get things to us on time, may not always respond to our emails or show up at church when we’d like them to.

So we wait, like we wait on God, like we wait on inspiration and healing and clarity and opportunity. We do what we can and when we feel frustrated or like things are getting a little out of hand we breathe deeply and pray. Fortunately, we don’t have to wait on love, or hope, and these are the things that sustain us while we wait. Well, that, and a lot of patience.