For When You Are Waiting

This is for all of us.

 

Everyone is, or has, or will be waiting for something. Something weighty and consequential. My childhood friend who is going through multiple trials herself shared this with me. It's from Kate Bowler's book "The Lives We Actually Have. 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days."

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For When You Are Waiting

God, here I wait.
Where the air is still
and presses in upon all possibility,
here in this waiting room with all the others--
   waiting for a diagnosis or for test results,
   for them to make a decision
   or my heart to finally know,
   for that letter in the mail
   or the headline to break,
   for the loved one refusing to change,
   or the child to find happiness at last.

God, here we wait,
in a place where fear and anger
and frustration come so easily,
and the simplest decisions seem to take forever.
Where we're reminded once again
that so little is in our control.

God, come and help us.
We need something—someone—
to make a difference.
We long for good news.
   Not the anticipation of realized fear
   we know too well.

Bring that ridiculous miracle,
   The phone call or news.
   The decision or the resolution.

But if it doesn't, God, bless this,
The place where love becomes the air we breathe
even here, in the waiting room.