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Everything comes to those who wait

 

This was the title for my writer’s group assignment. I sat at the computer, a blank page in front of me. My creative juices were definitely not flowing. I felt totally washed out. Dry. Staring vacantly at my computer, with writer’s block. What does that phrase even mean? Does ‘everything’ mean both good and bad?

And what do we do in the waiting? In Isaiah 41 those that wait on the Lord renew their strength. Maybe in the waiting we focus on Jesus, so that we are strong and prepared for action when the ‘everything’ comes. Psalm 27:14 says ‘Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.’ Psalm 130:5 ‘I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.’ Hmmm, a lot of waiting but what is the ‘everything’?

Anyway, that doesn’t solve the problem about what to write about this subject. Maybe it would be helpful to google the phrase. So I googled it. Good things come to those who wait. Oh, so it’s good things. Well hopefully!  Apparently ‘Religions and philosophers have long praised the virtue of patience; now researchers are starting to do so as well. Recent studies have found that, sure enough, good things really do come to those who wait’ (Kira M Newman, Yes! Magazine, April 17th, 2016). Oh so it’s about patience and persistence. Maybe it’s about answered prayer? The story of the persistent widow comes to mind when I think of prayer. Sometimes the waiting for answered prayer seems so long but we need to persist. Then sometimes God says no to our prayers. Does that mean we pray the wrong prayer? Maybe. That’s why we need the Holy Spirit as an advocate.  Or maybe we can’t see the answer because it’s different than we expected or it’s not answered 'yes' because we don’t understand the unintended consequences? I don’t know, because I’m not God. I’m called to wait and to trust. And prayer is, in fact, answered one way or another.  But I digress.

Mr Google also found the phrase ‘all things comes to those who wait’. Now we’re getting close. This proverb is generally associated with a poem by Lady Mary Montgomerie Currie although the authorship is disputed by The Oxford Dictionary of Quotation which dates this proverb as early as the 16th century whereas the good lady wrote her poem in the late 19th or early 20th century. Part of her poem reads:

 

ALL hoped-for things will come to you
Who have the strength to watch and wait,
Our longings spur the steeds of Fate,
This has been said by one who knew.

...

'Ah, all things come to those who wait,'
(I say these words to make me glad)
But something answers soft and sad,
'They come, but often come too late.'

 

Ah, so it is about strength in the waiting. Mind you, I’m not fond of the last line saying they often come too late. Anyway, I find that as I waited for inspiration, everything came to write this piece.

 

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