The Power in Waiting
We all wait. As children we wait to grow up. As young adults we wait to finish school and get married. We wait for the right job opportunity. We wait for the kids to leave home. The day may come when we feel we are waiting to die.
There are the day-to-day little “waits,” too. We wait for the roast to cook, We wait for it to stop snowing. We wait for the traffic light to change. We wait in line at the theme park. We wait for grocery clerk to call the manager to bring the key to reset the cash register.
Driving is waiting time. Your mind can do a million things while you wait for the car to get where it is going.
Wait, wait, wait.
Churches wait too. Churches wait for attendance to improve. They wait for a new pastor. They wait until there is more money. They wait until school is out, until summer is over, until Christmas is over, until Easter is over. . .
There is an art to waiting. Game show hosts know this very well. And the winner is . . (pregnant pause), wait, wait, wait . . . . . contestant number 2.
Waiting is a way to create focus. Today’s solution to unruly school bus behavior is to provide bus monitors and surveillance cameras. Fifty years ago, a school bus driver had a simple, effective solution—pull the bus to the side of the road and sit until behavior was under control. No verbal exchange. Just the power of waiting.
The nature of waiting is changing. There was a time when people in waiting mode might strike up a conversation. Now when you glance across a crowded waiting room, faces are glued to smartphones. A few may be leaning back with an iPod in their pocket linked to their ears with earphones. The few engaged in conversation are talking to companions they already know.
Waiting time is a valuable resource!
Waiting time can be retrospective. Permission to daydream granted.
Waiting time is a chance to do what we want to do. Television commercial breaks are getting so long that programming is slight. Advertisers think we are sitting watching 20 ads in a row. Smart people reclaim this part of their lives and do a chore or two or fit in a phone call or turn to a book or press the mute button and talk to the others in the room. Smart people may even find there are more engaging things to do than watch TV!
Waiting time is an opportunity to do the things we don’t have time for — to plan and reflect. It is a time to work on your visions.
Waiting time can give you that chance you were looking for — to pray.
Waiting time is gold. Spend it well.