The Fullness of Life
Knowing how to wait
It is not always easy to wait, much more to keep still. There is in each person a constant upsurging of impatience and desire for change, activity, achievement. And yet this craving for action can be a great obstacle to the perfect plan God has for us. Jesus set the example of waiting by living life of obscurity and hiddenness before beginning His public ministry.
Knowing how to wait is an important virtue in life. Call it patience. The farmer, after sowing the seeds must know how to wait till harvest time. It would be foolish to simply abandon the whole enterprise after sowing if they could not wait for the harvest. Even for the fishermen, waiting is necessary. Without knowing how to wait it would be impossible for them to persevere in their trade, or even to have a good catch.
Sometimes we spend days and days of patient waiting without positive results on our particular needs or problems. Then all of a sudden God comes to our aid and makes things happen, and it surprises to realize that everything is now in order, that our problems are gone.
We recall a Gospel account wherein the first disciples of Jesus had to spend whole night of waiting out in the lake of Gennesaret without a catch of fish. Then as the people were pressing around Jesus to hear the word of God, He got into one of the two boats by the lake. It belonged to Simon Peter. There Jesus sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when He had ceased speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. And Simon answered," Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets." And when they had this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish... (Cf. St. Luke 5:1-7).
We need to know how to wait if we want to receive the fullness of God's blessings. But our waiting has to be coupled with work, like Simon, who said, "Master, we toiled all night...."
The letter of St. James admonishes us to be patient and to know how to wait in his way: "Be patient, therefore, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruits of the earth, being patient over it until it receives the early and the late rain. You should also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand." (St. James 5:7-8).