The Work of Waiting, Part 1

Waiting is a form of work to be practiced as an art, a crucial behavior seen in all forms of intelligence, and a key ingredient of creation.

Waiting is a powerful tool at your disposal at all times. It can be used to make a better choice, eliminate waste, save time, transform the problem and play a key role in your creativity. All this wonderful fruit downstream of the persistent fact that waiting has often been the sole behavior responsible for preserving the physical life of those inclined to deploy it in its most graceful and exaulted form.

Even when waiting is forced upon you it remains your ally.

It’s not possible to optimize life without mastering the art of waiting. In dire circumstances it may not even be possible to remain alive without doing so.

The Work of Waiting Is

All activity after intention and before fulfillment involves some measure of the work of waiting.

Waiting is an active state of:

Growth
Meditation & Prayer
Contemplation
Exploration
Self-improvement
Monitoring aspects of the wait
Productivity on all non-wait related tasks

to perform the work of:

Preparing for what will be.
Imagining what should be.
Conjuring the optimal solution.
Learning to recognize and receive the solution when it appears.
Staying healthy and active on all life fronts during the wait.

Waiting as a Symptom

Waiting may be a symptom of something not ready or something not right. Part of the work of waiting is figuring out which and what.

Simple delays are easily spotted. Other causes for waiting require work to discover. Are you:

Not asking for the right thing?
Not ready to receive?
Not able to recognize the solution?
Blocked from receiving the solution by having already received the wrong one?

The cause for waiting usually seems tied to an external event. More likely there’s an internal block and some learning, realization or personal development is needed. We’re either not ready or don’t know what we need or want.

Waiting is Graceful

Isn’t denial the best response to a bad request?

If we’re not ready or want the wrong thing then being made to wait is a form of grace. It saves us from moving backwards with the wrong thing and gives time to transform ourselves. We can engage with the right thing, later. The invisible work of waiting is easier than extricating ourselves from the wrong solution and its consequences.

“Gods delays are not Gods denials” is well said. However, delay may well be denial if you’ve asked for the wrong thing. Finding that out is one of the tasks of the work of waiting.

When are we ever more busy about our dreams, desires and purposes than during periods of delayed gratification?

Limited Physical Ability to Wait

Waiting is not dormancy. The body lives while the spirit waits. We are mentally and spiritually, but not physically, able to wait. We cannot put our body on hold in abeyance to one area of concern. Even self-induced coma would only hamper a few aspects of the work of waiting.

The work of waiting is using our incredible mental capacity to stay healthy, make ready and change the nature of the wait. Self-transformation often changes what we’re waiting for and most certainly changes who will receive the answer of the wait.

Patience vs. Waiting

A skilled practitioner in the art of waiting has natural patience.

It’s not in our nature to wait. We don’t wait naturally and our ability to do so varies inversely with the urgency of desire.

Patience is less work than waiting unless you have a deadline. Patience implies you know what you’re waiting for. It may take some work but it’s only a matter of time. If you master the art of waiting patience is a side-benefit to your character.

Waiting vs. Doing Nothing

Doing nothing is only waiting if you’ve already done the work. But, there’s a lot of work to be done before getting to that point. Even then you’re still active in other areas of life and pursuit.

Some view waiting as a passive state of helplessness at the sole mercy of some external event. That’s not waiting. That’s complacency. Better to pray sincerely and specifically to God and surrender the outcome to Him. An act of faith is the opposite of complacency or it’s toothless parent, apathy.

A broken watch tells perfect time twice a day, but who wants one?

You wait for things you have intention and desire for. If you have neither then you’re just doing nothing. The results achieved by doing nothing will be a reflection of the work done: Nothing.

End of Part One.