I feel like I am in a season of waiting...for a lot of things. But maybe that's always true. I am certainly grateful for today and for good health and a chance to go away for the weekend with the family and a whole list of other things. But there are also things that are not as they should be and on those I am waiting. Mostly trusting God's timing, and yet sometimes finding myself frustrated and despairing. The following is a liturgy or prayer for times of waiting that I found. I love it so much I put it on my fridge.
As my life is lived in anticipation
of the redemption of all things,
so let my slow movement in this line
be to my own heart
a living parable and a teachable moment.
Do not waste even my petty irritations, O Lord.
Use them to expose my sin and selfishness
and to reshape my vision
and my desire into better, holier things.
Decrease my unrighteous impatience,
directed at circumstances and people.
Increase instead my righteous longing
for the moment of your return,
when all creation will be liberated
from every futility in which it now languishes.
Be present in my waiting, O Lord,
that I might also be present in it
as a Christ-bearer to those before and behind me,
who also wait.
As I am a vessel, let me not be like a sodden
paper cup full of steaming frustration, carelessly
sloshing unpleasantness on those around me.
Rather, let me be like a communion chalice,
reflecting the silvered beauty of your light,
brimming with an offered grace.
Amen.
