As I am not near as pithy as Katie, you'll have to bear with me in installments, since nobody goes to a blog to read an essay. Unless you're me.
THE LONG WAIT: 1
I hate waiting. And I don’t use the word hate lightly here. When waiting in line at the store, my patience runs out about ten seconds after joining the end of a line. After a thirty second perusal of the tabloid covers and a thorough investigation of the check-out line fare, the tension inside of me starts to build. I shift. I covertly watch the people around me. I try to pretend that I’m totally cool with standing there doing absolutely nothing while the cashier does fifteen price-checks on baby formula ahead of me. But inside I’m getting desperate. I think of fifty other things I could be doing RIGHT NOW, all of them way more important than waiting, and begin to feel like a teakettle on the boil, ready to start screaming any minute. While I’ve never had a total breakdown waiting in line, I have sprinted out of stores on several occasions after check-out just to release the excessive tension and irritation that grips me so strongly. It often takes me a good twenty minutes or more to recover from the physical and emotional stress of waiting in line. Don’t even ask me about waiting rooms in medical offices--that’s even worse!!
If that seems absolutely ridiculous to you, you’re right. But I bet you’ve had similar experiences. Nobody in our society likes to wait. Just think about how we eat--grocery stores are filled with frozen dinners and “instant” meals to save us the pain of waiting for food to cook. Or we can go to any of a myriad choices of fast “food” (watch out, though--you might have to wait in line!!) We can’t even be patient with nature--all the ads on TV about weight loss products tout their amazingly fast results, “I lost 50 pounds in three months!!” And if you can’t even wait for the pills or diet plan or exercise routine to kick in, you can get plastic surgery and look skinny now! Everything, it seems, is designed to keep us from the horrors of waiting.
Join us next time for The Long Wait:2!
“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.”
Psalm 37:7
Psalm 37:7
I hate waiting. And I don’t use the word hate lightly here. When waiting in line at the store, my patience runs out about ten seconds after joining the end of a line. After a thirty second perusal of the tabloid covers and a thorough investigation of the check-out line fare, the tension inside of me starts to build. I shift. I covertly watch the people around me. I try to pretend that I’m totally cool with standing there doing absolutely nothing while the cashier does fifteen price-checks on baby formula ahead of me. But inside I’m getting desperate. I think of fifty other things I could be doing RIGHT NOW, all of them way more important than waiting, and begin to feel like a teakettle on the boil, ready to start screaming any minute. While I’ve never had a total breakdown waiting in line, I have sprinted out of stores on several occasions after check-out just to release the excessive tension and irritation that grips me so strongly. It often takes me a good twenty minutes or more to recover from the physical and emotional stress of waiting in line. Don’t even ask me about waiting rooms in medical offices--that’s even worse!!
If that seems absolutely ridiculous to you, you’re right. But I bet you’ve had similar experiences. Nobody in our society likes to wait. Just think about how we eat--grocery stores are filled with frozen dinners and “instant” meals to save us the pain of waiting for food to cook. Or we can go to any of a myriad choices of fast “food” (watch out, though--you might have to wait in line!!) We can’t even be patient with nature--all the ads on TV about weight loss products tout their amazingly fast results, “I lost 50 pounds in three months!!” And if you can’t even wait for the pills or diet plan or exercise routine to kick in, you can get plastic surgery and look skinny now! Everything, it seems, is designed to keep us from the horrors of waiting.
Join us next time for The Long Wait:2!
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