Mar 18, 2026

Part 2: “FAITHFUL WAITING ON THE PATHWAY OF LIFE”

There is no passivity in the Holy Scripture. Those who wait are waiting very actively. They know that what they are waiting for is growing from the ground on which they are standing. If we are waiting with conviction that a seed has been planted & that something has already begun, it changes the way we wait. Active waiting implies being fully present to the moment with the conviction that something is happening where we are & we want to be present to it. A waiting person is someone who is patient, present to the moment, believing that this moment is the moment. They believe God’s promises will be fulfilled in God’s Kairos time. People, either individually or in groups, are patiently faithful & thus are hopeful. Trusting that fulfillment would come according to the promises of God & not just according to their wishes. Hope is always open ended. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was so hopeful, saying she did not know what would happen but she trusted so deeply, that she was open to all possibilities.

Trusting God & His promises & having faith is what prayer & celebration is all about. We come together with God around His promise, saying we are waiting for the Lord, who has already come. Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of spiritual life.

However, because we are human & live in this world but are not of this world, no doubt we all have things we are waiting for & wish for. However, wishes are not concrete. We all have wishes. We wish we’d get a certain job, we wish the pain would go away, we wish the future would go in a different direction.  And when these wishes do not happen, we are disappointed & slip into despair, which in many cases is connected with our fears. Despair prevents us from time for open-ended waiting. For this reason, a lot of our waiting is not open ended but is a way of controlling the future. Truth be told, the only thing we have control of is whether we surrender our wishes & live in a spirit of open-ended hope, trusting that God will fulfill His promises & then let God control our future.  

The first 5 people in the gospel of Luke were not filled with wishes. They were filled with hope.  Their hope was something very different. Their hope was trusting that fulfillment would come, but fulfillment according to the promises of God & not just according to their wishes.  Hope is always open-ended.

I have found it very important in my own life to try to let go of my wishes & instead, to live in hope. It takes faith, strength & courage to let go of my wishes & trust my life is precious & meaningful in the eyes of God. When I am able to do that, something radically new, beyond my own expectations, begins to happen to me, something beyond my own imagination or wishing.

To wait with openness & trust is a huge radical attitude toward life. It is giving up control over our future & letting God define our life. It is living with the conviction that God molds us in love, holds us in tenderness & moves us away from the source of our fear. Our spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively, present to the moment, expecting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our own imagination or prediction. It is exciting to think about this new way of living & walking with God isn’t it? As we all continue to wait for the new life of the Spring season to come, may we each step away from wishing about things we have no control over & step into active, faithful prayer that we know & expect will come as God defines our future & thus our life.

In celebration of new life, may we each wait for Gods promise to be fulfilled AMEN   

~Posted by Rev Kathryn Bindig, MDiv. MS; Pastoral Care Minister with assistance from Rich Muscatello; Director of Business Development & Strategy