Waiting

FRI., MAR. 25, 1983, 5:36 AM
FARM, FRONT OF FIRE

I have made you wait, o son, for a theme this morning. You do not do well at waiting, and since there is some merit and also some weakness in such impatience I shall offer it as the lesson of the day.

There is a lot of actual waiting in any earth life, but the critical factor is how any individual responds to the need to wait. The two extremes are: seeing waiting as a complete lack of opportunity… or as a genuine, desirable opportunity. The choice, or the position toward one or the other that you take is, in part, a reflection of the general way you approach life. Again, the extremes are that each moment in life is an opportunity… and… life is, finally, a matter of waiting to die.

For the person, such as yourself, who sees life basically as opportunities and challenges (though you are a bit better at doing this in retrospect than you are in actual moments) waiting is at least a potential opportunity. The main problem tends to be a (tendency to) focus on the good things you could be doing if you didn’t have to wait… or the undesirable consequences of having to wait.

Now the waiting that preceded this actual writing time was a time of preparation… and you know this. You know that I shall come with a meditative Teaching, and because you often pick up the title quickly or have one of your own ready for My response you become impatient if you must wait. You get up in plenty of time, but you know about how long this meditation lasts, and so you become impatient when you sense that the waiting time at the beginning will mean a longer time, and therefore an interference with later activities.

There is one sense in which I accept this of you, for it is a part of your developed nature… even part of a good sense of responsibility that you have. In another way, however, I want this tendency to come into your consciousness, and I want you to acknowledge and accept that any lesson such as this, from Me, is much more desirable and valuable than any other activity, and if it takes longer than an hour, praise the Lord!

Any time of waiting is an opportunity to observe and contemplate My world and My roles in it. There is always much to observe and, then, always the opportunity to consider how I am part of the scene or the phenomena. Another way to use waiting time is to think back on the past, reinforcing memories of experiences from which growth came, taking another, and perhaps a new look at the panorama that “has been”. Still another is to project on into the future and consider opportunities that might develop as life progresses. There certainly is merit in living life one day at a time and savoring and valuing each moment, but reality also has these other dimensions… reality in the earth, at any rate.