How do you Wait?

Flickr, Andrew "Bob" Brockhurst

 

 

That’s one type of waiting: the excited anticipation. Waiting for something we expect to be good, like a theatre show or an imminent holiday; a delicious-sounding meal. At that moment, the waiting is everything. Our focus is on that and that alone. But it’s not the only type of waiting.

 

There’s the long, tedious wait. For a bus that never seems to come. For the doctor when all you can feel is the pain that prompted the appointment in the first place. The sort of wait that dominates, not because of the adrenaline of anticipation, but because there’s nothing else to do, or nothing else we can do, until the wait is over.

This third type of waiting is in the background. Life goes on despite it. The waiting is always present, sometimes urgent, but it doesn’t block out everything else. It might be the wait for a distant hospital appointment or a child waiting for Christmas.

It might be waiting for God to act.

We know that God’s timing is perfect; we know that it’s often different to our timing! It can be frustrating waiting for answered prayer, for guidance or change. But we continue to be active: to work, to pray, to serve, to live our lives while alert to God speaking and ready to respond when his answer comes.

That makes it sound easy and often it isn’t. It may involve a bit of ranting at God about why he’s taking so long. A bit of pain and heartache if we wonder if he’s ever going to answer. But deep down we know he will.

There’s a lot of waiting in the writing life. For inspiration. For responses from beta readers or publishers. For opportunities. It should be active waiting, background waiting. I don’t know about you, I can’t sit around and wait for inspiration. Ideas are more likely to come while life is going on, while I’m walking or shopping or talking to friends.

At the minute, I’m waiting to hear back on one project, waiting for initial inspiration for another and waiting for editing inspiration to progress a third. What I really need is something short and snappy to work on while all the waiting is happening in the background!

What are you waiting for at the minute? And is that waiting taking over your life?

 

Quotes are from my current works in progress