The sky turned steel gray overnight. While some leaves still cling to the branches of now dormant trees there is no doubt that winter is about to come to Chicago IL. I find myself chilled - not cold, but chilled by what is predicted to come - record snow and cold throughout the Midwest. But who knows what will actually happen? I find that waiting can be the most active form of meditation and prayer in life. So how do I learn to wait in such a way as to leave my life and my world open to all the possibilities AND prepare for what is most likely?
Is it possible to feel the chill of all the waiting in this world? People waiting for word about a resume submitted - work - who knew it would be so hard to find. People waiting for news about some health test they didn't think they needed until ... People waiting for relative to show up or to leave peacefully. People waiting for documents in the mail, waiting for sale prices, waiting for food, waiting for stop lights, waiting for friendship, love, comfort, joy, laughter, words, understanding, tears, property, wisdom, sleep, Seinfeld, money, peace, everything.
In the game of waiting, winter weather is among the easiest. There is not anything that I can do about the amount of snow except buy a good shovel which I have and put plastic on my windows to seal out the cold, which I will tell myself I'll do this weekend for the next 5-10 weeks. But what about waiting for word on a job or waiting for word on a friends health? How do I prepare for what is but still stay open to what might be? These are questions of faith and belief.
Tomorrow we begin the spiritual path of waiting - Advent.
For four weeks we will hear tales of angels visiting people, stories of faith and hope and trials. We might wrestle with how all of this could be possible. If we can believe this today in our hard scientific reality. As we wrestle we might look more deeply at the questions of faith that arise for ourselves. How do I believe these stories - or might I ask how do these stories support my faith? We may wonder about the survival of a woman found to be pregnant out of wedlock, of the kindness of her betrothed - these are not the thing that cannot be measured in tests in laboratories - but they are just as miraculous. Waiting gives us time to wrestle with these things, time to wonder, time to question, time to seek the Holy where it might be found.
Waiting as a spiritual discipline is hard work. Waiting requires that I be open to God's presence here not as I expect to find God but as God comes to me and my world. This simple project is an attempt to begin a conversation with the world that we live within about this time - what are you waiting for?
Karen
