Reflections by Rev. Joanne Anquist

Hurry up and wait – it feels like more and more of life is like that.  Standing in line to get a good seat.  Waiting online for an operator to figure out why your internet isn’t working.  Queuing up at the grocery store because there are never enough clerks and that self-check doesn’t quite do it.  Waiting for your partner to try on their fourth outfit of the day because each one is not quite right, when you’re anxious to get going.  Hurry up and wait is such a waste of time, it’s almost painful.

I remember being a kid and being so anxious for my life to get going, for me to go to University, to get a job, to find a partner, to have kids, to buy a house – all those things that the culture tells me are important milestones for a typical life.  In the meantime, I was always busy with school work, with church groups, with hanging out with friends.  So much activity preparing for life to begin.  Hurry up and wait.

Well most of those things did come to me – I have 3 degrees, so school was good.  I found an amazing partner to spend my life with – still going strong after 36 years!  Had three incredible children who are the joy of my life and make me proud every day.  Bought a few houses – lost money on most of them, but hey – at least we can check that off the list! I have a career I enjoy and folks around me that make my life sing.  All that waiting and it seems that life has finally arrived!

I’ve learned, over the years, that so much of life is waiting for things to start, waiting for things to get going.  I’ve also learned not to give up in the midst of the waiting.  We do that when we lose faith in the future or we just coast, - just waiting to see what will happen, feeling helpless to direct your steps. You cease to be the hero of your own life, and become a side character that is subject to those who seem to be at the center of the game.

But waiting is not powerlessness.  We live in faith and hope that God holds us as we walk into our future. We trust that even though things are not yet, there is abundant life around the corner.  There is a new beginning with the next move, or the new job, or finding a friend.  The key to all this hurry up and wait, is to wait expectantly – knowing something new is being forged, some joy is waiting to be experienced, some rebirth is waiting to sneak up on us if we wait with our lives open and our hearts full.  

Wait expectantly.  Be prepared for struggle, but believe that you can shape your life into something beautiful. 

Rev. Joanne Anquist