Let All Creation Rejoice--Titus 2:11-13

Day 6

Waiting is hard.

I don’t like it.

I’m not good at it.

But I’m fairly conversant in all of the tricks of learning to wait even though I’m uneven and inexpert at applying them.

I’m mindful about waiting. I know a good bit of life is about waiting–in a queue for something, for a diagnosis, for a parking space.

I set realistic expectations most of the time. I expect to wait. Sometimes I even have a plan for waiting. I look at my phone or I bring a Kindle. I don’t meditate well or really, at all–so being placid and thoughtful doesn’t work for me. I end up just falling asleep.

Mostly, I pray. I pray that my anxiety about waiting is diminished and replaced with His grace. Well, in so many words.

In Let All Creation Rejoice: Reflections For Advent, The Nativity, and Epiphany, Father Stavros suggests that waiting is WHAT we are all about. He writes:

“God is calling us to live upright and godly lives in this world, while awaiting our reward. It’s hard to do this in a world where there is so much instant gratification, where we are told we don’t have to wait for things.”

I’ve got 6 decades of instant gratification not exactly working out for me to point at–from a failed marriage early on in my life to the maddening rationalizations I conjure up to do what I want when I want–still.

It’s how we all are. Crashing around, sometimes into one another, spilling our drinks on the carpet, fidgety in our lives, unable to think clearly because we are scared to death of WAITING.

Father Stavros offers a two-part solution to waiting:

“The key to waiting is to first focus on the reward. And second, to have patience. The reward for a life well lived in the eyes of God is eternal life in the Kingdom of God. We lose focus on that because the world tells us it’s not real. The world tells us not to worry about the future, to get all you can today!”

Good.

So what exactly is the reward?

And this is where Christianity gets really difficult–we live in the world, but our reward is not here. And for the literal life of us, we mostly don’t see that.

We are too caught up in the sensuousness of the world (sometimes even the SENSUALNESS) and we fail to see or even remember that the grace of God has appeared in Jesus and being with Him in His eternal kingdom is what we should be WAITING on.

Father Stavros references Titus 2:

Titus 2:11-13 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and in a godly manner in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,

So we are waiting–in the biggest, most giant wait of our lives.

Really, the only waiting that ever matters. The grace of salvation.

Greg Albrecht shares an apocryphal story about C.S. Lewis describing the importance of grace in A Lion and a Lamb:

“Years ago, during a British conference on religion, experts from all over the world debated about what was unique to biblically based Christian faith. Was it the idea of the incarnation—God, in the person of Jesus, coming to be one of us? No, other religions have teachings about gods who appear in human form. What about the resurrection? No, other religions believe in a return from death.

The debate was raging until a man named C.S. Lewis came into the room.

Lewis asked, “What’s all the rumpus about?” When the delegates to the conference told him that they were discussing what authentic, biblically based Christianity teaches and believes that is truly unique to all world religions, Lewis replied, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.”

Grace, without me being definitive about it all, (but I’m taking C.S. Lewis’ word for it) does seem to be a defining characteristic of my faith.

That is worth waiting for, I think.

I remember all the lines at Disney World, I’ve waited in–just to get in, to ride some dumb ride–and for what? A few moments of WHEE! (One time I came off a ride and threw up in the bushes–how’s that for getting what you want?)

But what I’m waiting for now, even though I’m not in control, is something that will last a lot longer than any ride here on earth.

Jen Wilkin and J.T. English write in You Are A Theologian: An Invitation To Know And Love God Well about how maybe learning to wait well on earth, trains us for waiting for God’s heavenly kingdom later:

“Waiting implies we are not in control. Only the King builds the kingdom. The citizens of the kingdom simply receive it. Our posture in the meantime is to pray and to wait.”

And here’s my dirty little secret about waiting: I feel like I’m in a place where Karen’s cancer is a memory, where all we have to do is to look FORWARD and be positive about what life will bring us and YET–I feel like I’m waiting for the OTHER shoe to drop or for the whole bed to collapse.

Why do I do that to myself?

A form of doubting God in my life, I suppose.

And that is ungodly and like Titus 2 says–I’m going to deny it.

I’m not waiting. 🙂

Lord, we thank You for the grace that brings salvation to all of us. Help us to live lives that reflect Your transformative power of grace.

Lord, grant us the wisdom and discernment to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled and godly lives in our present day.

Amen.