Reflections by Rev. Joanne Anquist

When I was a kid, I hated playing tag – waiting for someone to catch me made me so anxious, I would just turn around and stop so it could be over.  I was never fast enough to outrun anyone, or to catch anyone for that matter.  Just get it over with – I hate waiting for the inevitable tag that would surely come soon.  I was waiting in dread.

Good things come to those who wait, they say.  Do you think it’s true?  Do you think good things always come to those who wait?  I can think of a lot of times when waiting is the worst! Sometimes we’re waiting to see if someone will make it home through a blizzard when we’ve heard there are accidents everywhere. Sometimes we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop when we’ve had a run of bad luck.  Sometimes we’re waiting for a diagnosis that could change the course of our life.  Good things don’t always come to those who wait. 
 

There is a kind of anxiety that sets in when we’re in the unknown, when we’re waiting to see what happens, when we have no control over the outcome.

What do you do when the waiting is getting the best of you?  How can we redeem a waiting that is agonizing because there are no good outcomes?

While we wait we can open our souls to divine presence and peace.  While we wait for the good news or bad, for the way forward or the step back, for the new life or the reshaping of the old, we open ourselves to the universe and all it has for us.  It transforms waiting into a spiritual practice, because seeking divine presence calms our fears, waiting in Divine Mystery sooths our pain, living in Sacred Hope frees us from anxiety.  We can make it through whatever is coming because we are surrounded by love and carried by grace.  That is what it means to Wait in Hope.

Rev. Joanne Anquist