Waiting
Waiting at Still WaterOctober 13, 2005
Waiting is an action that causes impatience in us as children. Waiting can bring despair as adults. Waiting is often where we are in the "dark night of the soul" as St John of the Cross wrote.
Waiting has taken on some new facets as I have been reading through Sue Monk Kidd's book When the Heart Waits. She speaks of waiting as a place of great creativity, if we will let ourselves embrace it.
Biblical waiting is very often spoken of along with hope - not hopelessness. The expectation, the action of watching, while in this space of unknowns and seeming inactivity is beginning to reveal great creativity! Hope and waiting are indeed holding hands, and holding mine in this birthing process.
Sue Monk Kidd says "the process of waiting takes us not forward but inward" which takes us deeper, takes us on the journey to authenticity, and that brings us into freedom IF we are willing to wait while the Spirit leads us in the work required to move us from forward racing to inner streams of still water that restore the soul.
King David's picture of still water that restores the soul then is also a place of waiting
"Adonai is my shepherd;
I lack nothing.
He has me lie down in grassy pastures,
he leads me by quiet water,
he restores my inner person."
Complete Jewish Bible
This photo, where beauty was rolled out in front of me as I sat in the quiet autumn afternoon, reminded me that waiting is not just the dark night, but the beauty the pursues us as we are waiting, as we sink into the stillness beside those still waters.
"Counsellor Helen Luke cautions that without significant times to be still, we extinguish the possibility of growth and walk backwards. Here's the paradox: we achieve our deepest progress standing still" (pg 34 When the Heart Waits - Sue Monk Kidd)
One thing I have come to realize is that waiting causes me to pursue stillness and contemplation. In that place of stillness I also find the presence of the Spirit within,
and the presence of the Almighty surrounding me. Abba's orchestrating waiting is also the personal invitation to come and be still where the reality of what He spoke unfolds "Be still and know that I am God." Stillness calls all our senses into aliveness and in that place the soul, my soul, is eager to listen to the still waters that gently speak of and call forth passionate living.