Spiritual Life and Waiting

Spiritual Life and Waiting April 23, 2016

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I spent more than my usual share of time this week in waiting rooms.

I generally do not enjoy waiting, though I am becoming more willing to practice patience. Rooms which are specifically intended for waiting often have specific hazards designed into them. I have learned to avoid watching anything that might be on a television, especially in the morning. The magazines often leave much to be desired. You can meet some very interesting people while waiting. I tend to play with my phone as often and as long as I can, though there are limits even to that.

Some people see waiting as a lot like spiritual life. Sitting in a waiting room can feel like sitting in church. Waiting is sitting with a combination of anxiety and anticipation. Some people are preoccupied with everything else they could be doing with their time. People wait, surrounded by people they do not really know, until it is time to go.

More and more, I am coming to see waiting as an opportunity for reflection.

I try to spend my waiting time in the present moment. It is easy to get distracted by what I wish I had done in the past, or what I hope to do in the future. Waiting can be a time of sitting, of resting, of breathing deeply. There is nothing we can to do force waiting time to speed up or slow down. There is very little we can do to change the circumstances of our waiting. What we can control is how we respond.

Maybe waiting has some similarities to spiritual life after all.

How does spiritual life shape how well you wait?

What are you waiting to receive from spiritual life? Are you anxious, or are you accepting?

[Image by frances1972]


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