Monday, December 8th

Thanks to Susie Gentry for this picture 
of me trying to hold Sam in place, "no taller!"

You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.
                                                                                  ~ Thomas Merton

Thanks Susie Gentry for this picture

     Dad was a proud Marine who first taught me about “hurry up and wait.” This notion returns every now and then, and each time it feels so very true. For this time, for the season there is a sense of rushing even as we wait. The struggle for many of us in this hustling and bustling culture is that waiting feels so contrary. For many of us, waiting doesn’t feel like a spiritual practice, instead sometimes it’s more like a grown-up version of “time out.”

     When our youngest, Sam, was two or so he somehow got himself into trouble. As fate would have it, I was the grown-up in charge.  “OK, Sam,” I remember saying to him, “That’s it, you need a time out.” And with those words, I thought my work was done. Then I remember he and I looked at one another for an awkward bit. And we waited.  Finally he said to me, “I usually sit here and somebody sets the timer.” What a relief (I remember thinking to myself). Now we could both get on with our lives. Sam had done more than his part, he’d cracked the code. I went over to the timer on the microwave and stood there, wondering, “How long (O Lord)?”  After another long moment, I heard Sam’s small voice behind me say, “Two minutes. The timer always says `two minutes.’” And we did just that.

     This season isn’t to be endured as a “time out.” Advent’s call for us to wait is an invitation for intentional listening, for paying attention to messengers around us; it is time set aside to step outside of what we’ve always done and do a new thing. In our waiting we are called to welcome small or great shifts from what has been for us toward what is next. Merton’s words bring us a faithful reassurance, “You don’t need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going.”

     Hopefully you are settling into the rhythms and patterns of waiting as we move through this second week of Advent. In and through this season of listening and paying attention, may you be surprised by joy and strengthened by stories ~ yours and the story that is always holding you. May you lean into God’s good peace.             

                                      Breath prayer:   “leaning”    “in”

Prayer:
Holy One, teach us this day to wait. Transform our rhythms of hurrying and scurrying into breathing a little deeper and listening more closely for You. Preparing One, shape our spirits and our days so that we may be alive to what matters most: loving and serving You. Amen.

---

Thanks to Beth Locker for these pictures