Waiting Impatiently for....

   Last week we spent a couple of days on Kiawah Island with our son and part of his family. Their house was only a short walk from the beach, and so I wanted to get up early and see the sunrise as that new day dawned. It might be a Kodak moment, and I did have my camera with me, but without an alarm clock, I did not know if I would wake up in time to catch that event.

   But I did wake up early, and I did get to the beach just as the sky was beginning to lighten. Since I don't wear a watch, I did not know the time, nor did I know what time the sunrise was predicted to be, and so I waited. I found a spot on a ramp built over the dunes, a place where I could rest my camera on the railing and get a steady shot since I had no tripod, and I waited. And I waited.

   I took several shots of the sky as it changed its pastel colors. I anticipated the spot where the sun would rise out of the ocean, and I waited.

   As the world around me began to lighten, I wondered if the sun was somehow hidden behind some clouds that I could not see. Was it already up, and I could not see it? Was my waiting in vain? Had the moment passed me by?

   Then an arc of orange broke out of the sea, and as it slowly rose in the east, I took a bunch of shots with various camera settings and wondered why I had been so impatient. I knew the sun would rise on its schedule, I knew it was out there, I just wanted it to hurry up and present itself so I could get what I came for.

   This morning, as I walked early and saw the sky in the east beginning to get brighter, I thought of that other morning of last week, and I thought of that time as a microcosm of my life at times. I am impatient with people and impatient with God.

   Then I realize, even as I pray for what I think are the right things in my life, that I am operating on my time schedule and not His. Does He not want to give me a deeper knowledge of Him? Does He not want me to be confident in my life with Him? Does He not want to give me direction for my life? Does He not want to give me those attributes that would make me a better disciple?

   And just now I think about that sunrise. There is a timetable, and it is not mine.

   And I pray, "Thy Will Be Done"

   and wait impatiently for patience.....