The waiting room

Our time here is so valuable. Not something to wasted or taken for granted. This we know in our hearts. Even society plants the idea in our heads with new innovations that can save our time. Drive-thrus, self-check outs, online shopping, online anything. We've even mastered multi-tasking on so many levels -  texting while driving (bad, BAD idea), movie theaters with dinner and a movie, the list is endless. However, more often then not...the more time we are given, the more time we waste. I can't even count how many hours I've spent on Facebook. The internet is a time-eating machine. For everything, we're encouraged to get fast-relief...taking medicine for even mild headaches. The habits are many, and the effects are endless.

And in the process of becoming an efficient people, we've picked up the "everything should run on our time" mentality. And it's actually a scary place to be. We no longer no what it means to wait patiently. If you want something, you're told to just go after it. Patience sometimes even seems to no longer be a virtue.  And lack of patience has led to increasing intolerance. Intolerance when experiencing the smallest doses of inconveniences, even intolerance of people.This can be seen especially during times of heavy traffic and in pretty much every store on Black Friday.

It's easy to get lost in a "the clock's ticking" mentality...but what if we slowed down? What if we took time to experience the wait? Long lines would mean a much-needed chance to pray, fellow drivers could be seen as broken people like us rather than as burdens, relationships might even be restored.

As we struggle to recognize that not everything is under our control, we also fail to recognize that there's beauty in giving up control and trusting in something greater than ourselves. We may have learned how to become progressive, productive people...but in the process we have also lost sight of some of the things that make us human - the beauty in suffering, the beauty in waiting.

Waiting patiently on God is one of the hardest lessons I've ever had to learn as a Christian, one that I still struggle with, one that I may always struggle with. It's hard to wait, hard to trust, and even harder to let go and give control to God. However, we're all called to wait. This is true for the family who waits with uncertainty for results in the waiting room of a hospital, the young couple that awaits the coming of their newborn baby girl, the poor father and husband who lives from paycheck to paycheck. But it's never comfortable. It's never easy. Even Jesus' three closest apostles struggled with this in the garden.

It's easy to be so caught up in getting through the difficult times that we experience that we forget to embrace them. These too come from our Lord's hands. These too have meaning and purpose.

Do we trust that what God has for us is worth the wait? That God has and always will have our good and only our good in mind? Not knowing what it means to wait on the Lord, we easily forget the part that we must play in this Christian waiting room - letting go of ourselves and being willing to accept anything and everything. This is faith. This is total love. And we must learn to be open to the beauty God has in store for us...in all seasons of our lives. The wait disciplines us. The wait creates hope in us. The wait forms us in His image. The wait is beautiful.

As in the time of Christ's resurrection on the third day after his death, this lifelong process of trusting and waiting through periods of uncertainty will prepare us as we wait on Christ's second coming, where He will meet His bride in the fullness of glory. I'm learning to embrace the wait. And believe me, it's been a difficult journey.
As David writes in Psalm 27:14, "Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart."

He truly is our soul's delight...Learning that more and more surely with each passing day. May we always await Him with eagerness with the inspiration of the Spirit.

‎"Love, in fact, means leaving yourself behind; giving yourself; not wanting to hold on to yourself, but becoming free from yourself. Love means not getting preoccupied with oneself, asking over and over again, “What will become of me?” It means looking ahead, toward another, toward God and to the people who He sends. It is this principle of love that defines man’s journey…" (Pope Benedict XVI)

Thoughts on empathy

Sometimes I can't help but say that the world is really lacking empathy. We sympathize with others (feel sorry) but rarely take on their own experiences as our own..We rarely become "one" with them. But Christ said, "Whatever you do to the least of my children, that you do unto me." So the opposite must also be true...whatever we fail to do for our brothers and sisters, we fail to do for Him who has done all for us..."who loved us to the end".

Lately, I have been soo absolutely blessed to experience and recognize this great calling of ours - to be one with one another - through my friends, through their willingness to give of themselves to me. It has really been a crazy past couple of weeks. Lots of little life changes, the typical busyness of school, and campus ministry has been occupying so much of my time, energy, and emotions. After this weekend especially, I hadn't been feeling too well, and throughout the entire day, I felt the support of my roommates. And through their love, I felt Christ himself. One made me dinner and provided me with medicine. Another offered me her cupcakes, which are I must say one of my greatest edible weaknesses. The other checked up on me every now and then to see how I was. Oh what love the Father has for his children! And I'm so amazed that He would express that to me through the selfelessness of those around me.

It's so easy to shrug off what others are going through. To assure them of our prayers but at the same time be distant and lost in our own problems, activities, desires. To listen and then turn away. But we have yet to fully know and understand the power that comes from putting their needs above our own and being Christ to each person around us, in whatever way we can.

May our desire to serve and please God be unconditional. May our love be sincere.

Jesus is the most important element of peace. Without Jesus, we can roll together as many virtues and good intentions, wishes and works as we want, but we will never have peace." - Homegrown Faith

When shall it be that we shall taste the sweetness of the Divine Will in all that happens to us, considering in everything only His good pleasure, by whom it is certain that adversity is sent with as much love as prosperity, and as much for our good? When shall we cast ourselves undeservedly into the arms of our most loving Father in Heaven, leaving to Him the care of ourselves and of our affairs, and reserving only the desire of pleasing Him, and of serving Him well in all that we can? -- St. Jane Frances de Chantal

"Nothing created has ever been able to fill the heart of man. God alone can fill it infinitely." St. Thomas Aquinas