Waiting, and Waiting, and Waiting.

I once told my buddy, who was going through a rough time, that he just wasn't listening hard enough to God. He replied "No Ben, sometimes, God just doesn't tell you anything."

At first, I thought to myself, "He was just going through a really hard time. He didn't actually mean it." The more I have grown, however, I realized that what he said was true. Sometimes we can't see the answer because, frankly, God isn't showing it to us.

Why wouldn't he show us the answer, or what we should do next? Part of it is just the sheer mysteriousness of God, something we will never truly comprehend, but there is a part of it that we can comprehend. Once upon a time, I stole my friend Liz's laptop. I ran around campus with it, holding it above my head, forcing her to chase me around. Finally I went inside and I let her get ahold of it. I said, "Liz. Let go of the laptop." She replied, "No! You're going to steal it again!" This exchange went on for some time. I kept telling her to trust me, but I never said I wasn't going to steal it. I didn't say what was going to happen next. I think you see where this is going. Finally, in an act of desperation, she trusted me, and let go of the laptop. I put the laptop down, and nothing bad happened.

The point of this story is twofold. Firstly, it highlights the siblingesque friendship that me and Liz have, which I enjoy greatly. Secondly, it shows that God keeps us hanging in the balance because we need to master one exercise in order to go on to the next. For Liz, she needed to master trust. Maybe you need to master trust too. Maybe, before you get to date that special someone, you need to learn to be chaste. Maybe before you get that job, you need to learn patience. Perhaps what we don't see is that God cannot just instantly work wonderful things into our lives. We need to be ready for them.

Even when we know what God wants, there is still waiting for God to give it to us. A good friend of mine has been married for, like, a bajillion years, and he and his wife have no children. He told me once, with acceptance, "We know where God wants us to go. He is just making us wait for some reason."

The moral of this story is that we need to learn how to respond to God. There are times when God shows us something, and that is the time to take action. Then we wait in stillness for God to respond, perfecting and improving ourselves. This stillness is so underrated and overlooked. A priest once told me in confession that everybody knows you need to be quiet, but that isn't what God calls us to in the psalms. "Be still, and know I am God." says the Lord.

If you are where I am right now, waiting for God to respond to you, take this time to look at where you are and where you need to be. It might just be a need to learn patience, or trust, or chastity, or charity. Examine yourself, pray to our Lord that He might prepare you, and watch yourself change. Be still, my friends, and know that He is God.

I leave you with one of the sweetest joys of man, a poem.


The point in waiting is to enjoy
To love and worship God
In every act of your life

Including the waiting.

And in the waiting
Remember His nature
That He is the Giver of every perfect gift
That He desires to lavish you with such treasures
Treasures that are worth the wait
Solely because He is in them.

Rest in this:

He is going to give you
Exactly what you need
At exactly the time you need it.
That is reason to smile
That is reason to breathe easy
And rest in Him.

Let go of “when” and “if”
Because His ways
Are so much higher than yours.
His thoughts
Beyond what you could ever fathom
Because He loves you.
Oh, how He loves you.
And that is the point
of your entire existence
To experience His presence
His love
Inside every moment

Especially in the waiting.
-Josiah Schwartz



Peace
-The Boy Pilgrim