WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

I was just walking along the path at the Racquet Club behind the tennis courts last summer, minding my own business. The shade of the giant Ponderosa Pines felt good as I watched two Scrub Jays squawking at a squirrel. I climbed the stairs almost to the street-level when I heard someone ask, “What are you waiting for?”

I have this experience every once in awhile. I am tempted to look over my shoulder to see who is there, but I know better. God is there.

I have learned to pay attention when I “hear” this “voice” rather than spend my energy questioning it, doubting it or rationalizing it away. I have also learned to be very grateful for it. I knew immediately what the questions meant. God was reminding me that this is it! This moment is the moment God has given me to live fully and to feel fully. Today, this very moment is a gift. The present, a present. This moment, this hour, this day, week, month and year will soon be just a memory.

Don’t we human beings so often say to ourselves, “I’m waiting until I feel better, until I have more energy, until I have more money, more time, until the kids grow up, until I lose weight, until I’m better organized, until he apologizes, until she forgives me. The list of excuses never ends.

I realized that, although I was going about my business, accomplishing many of the tasks on my to-do list, I was missing out. I had a choice and I have a choice every day. Do I choose to plunge my heart and my soul into life, my family, my work at the church or do I just live my life, minding my own business, checking off tasks accomplished on my to-do list? Do I wait until I feel safer or more secure or do I take risks?

Jesus’ birth reminds us that we can give birth to new ideas, new ways of thinking. Jesus’ life is our example of love and light, shared with the world. Do we choose to follow his example? What are we waiting for?

But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

--Isaiah 40:31

                                                                                                --Leigh Downing