WAITING

"Non Waiting", oil,
by Robin Cheers

It occurred to me this morning that there are two kinds of waiting, and I’m afraid I’ve spent far more time doing one kind than the other. The kind of waiting that turned into a routine for me in my younger days is like the waiting done by the man at the sheep market pool in the New Testament’s gospel of John. This man waited, just as I used to sometimes do, for a power outside himself to repair and revitalize something in his life. He apparently had felt powerless, and very ill, for 38 years, and each day he waited beside the presumably miraculous pool for some special material occurrence that he hoped would heal him. He was essentially imprisoned – paralyzed and disabled, you might say – by his belief that the water of the pool had immense power and supervised his destiny. It was fortunate for him that Jesus passed by, because Jesus showed him, in a few simple words, a straightforward but stunning truth – a truth that transformed this waiting man’s world. Jesus simply told the man that he was “whole”. He made it clear to him that he was already, right at that moment, an essential part of an endless, unbroken, and harmonious marvel called life. What the man learned, and what I am still learning, is that we don’t have to wait for salvation or healing or harmony or comfort or concord. All of these, in some form or another, are already present with me, each moment, simply needing to be seen and embraced. The only kind of waiting I need to do today is the good and happy and breathless kind of waiting we all love. What hidden marvels of harmony and healing will unfold in the next moment, and the next, and the next? That’s the question I need to ask myself all day today, and then wait with confidence for the answer to be revealed.