Waiting on a Miracle

So if we are ever on the phone and I say I’m going hiking, please feel free to ask if I am going by myself. If so, you might attempt to suggest I find a track to walk around instead.  The last two times I have attempted to stroll up a mountain solo have resulted in significant bush waking.

Now, there are times when we are just blatantly on the wrong path, heading in the wrong direction. Other times we get lost because we are distracted. Sometimes one could be accused of seeking an adventure, thinking she is “close enough” to the path, though the result leaves her four miles from her car (hypothetically, of course). Yet, what happens when we are doing the “right” thing, following the path laid out before us and for unknown reasons we end up pushed off course? The conversation I had right before starting out on yesterday’s adventure was about the last of these situations. Regression: how do we handle slipping backwards for unknown reasons? What happens when you finally believe in miracles and yet you are awaiting the miracle itself? What do you do when it feels as though your pleading prayers are met with an abyss of seeming silence? Well, God has a sense of humor. Let’s just say there was a parable to be found in between the branches and leaves.

As I was coming down the mountain, the trail disappeared and I found myself side stepping tree trunks while getting smacked in the face with tree branches. In order to come out of the forest, we must first know where we want to go and recognize when we are not heading in the right direction. Before we can change direction, we must know we are lost. So even though there is that sense that things aren’t going the right way, it is an opportunity to pause so as to no longer continue down a dangerous path. 

For me this came as I approached the edge of the cliff. Seeing as hang gliding wasn’t an option, recognizing the path I was on was a dead end (potentially literally) it forced me to recognize I needed to find a path, the way. I spent many moments walking a little and then waiting. As I waited, I listened. In an attempt to hear anything other than the crickets, straining to hear other voices, I reassessed my surroundings. Waiting invites us to silence, which opens us to listen. After several attempts of walking and reassessing, I recognized I needed to back track. The spot I was in wasn’t going to lead me to join up with the trail, so I needed to head to the top of the mountain to get some perspective.  It was here that I was able to redirect my efforts so as to begin again.

Though I was happy to be back at my car, what is the value in the journey? While hiking it was getting to see look out points I hadn’t planned on stopping at, it was listening to the bugs and watching the sun set. It was the opportunity to be outside to play longer than expected. Similarly, how can we learn to appreciate the gift of time, the gift that is found in the waiting for a miracle?  For me, it has been in this “waiting space” that God has unfolded a myriad of gifts that I would have missed out on had God granted the instantaneous miracle I plead for. Friendships formed, adventures lived, faith purified, and joy received are some of the gifts God has generously given. These gifts are universal and yet incredibly specific.

It takes patience and grace to recognize that two steps forward and one step back are apart of the dance of life. Here is an invitation to work like it depends on you and to pray like it depends on God. It requires a sitting still, an open awareness, that in the midst of difficulty potentially lies the greatest grace. Do you dare to sit actively and to wait with courage? Do you dare to open the gifts that can only be found in the waiting? Let us wait with joyful courage and bold hope.

Verso l’alto,

Coop

And you were meant to be here tonight.
This is your time. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdmyoMe4iHM

Miracles happen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf_uXiJf6Eg

“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.” Bonhoeffer 

Dare to redefine the Waiting Place

 It is not an abyss of nothing but rather a font of grace.

~

You can get so confused
that you’ll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles cross weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place…

…for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or the waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for the wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO! That’s not for you!

Somehow you’ll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You’ll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

Oh the Places You’ll Go - Dr Seuss