My Soul in Stillness Waits


How well do we wait? Your answer is not a surprise. While it’s true that patience is a fruit of the Spirit, most of us wait poorly.  Statistics show that the average person in the US spends at least an hour per day waiting. Personally I think that stat is a little light. Could it be that by age 70 we will have spent 3+ years in wait? Dormant, on hold, paused … waiting for something to happen.  We are a people who should be experts at waiting, we seemingly spend so much of our valuable time doing it. 

Waiting well. Sounds like an oxymoron. Consider how we treat people around us while we are in wait. Lingering in time may very well produce worry, distress and anxiousness, for many of us. Marking time in wait seeks any distraction, even blame, to ease its discomfort. By contrast, waiting well holds tension, an expectation for believers, that God can be overtly present through the stillness of waiting. What we do while waiting, what goes through our minds, there’s the challenge. Shouldn’t our time of waiting be seen as an opportunity? It is in silent stillness of waiting that we can clearly recognize the presence of God lying beneath the distractions. Maybe there is something powerful within the waiting.


 Advent, Week Four. My Soul in Stillness Waits, longing for Christmas. The waiting that comes with Advent is all about anticipation. Not open ended but finite. We know what’s coming, yet we can be sparkled eyed in our expectancy. Waiting can be a gift or a curse. The choice is up to you.

The Collect (KOL-ekt)
For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits; Daily, purify our conscience, Almighty God; truly our hope is in you. To Him who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Hebrew Testament
Then Isaiah said: “Hear then, O house of David…the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.

“…those who wait on the Lord shall…”

The Epistle
“…Love others well…love authentically…Do not forget to rejoice, for hope is always just around the corner. Hold up through the hard times that are coming, and devote yourselves to prayer. Share what you have …” Romans 12

The Gospel
Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way…the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel