Waiting or moreover, patience, is a lost art form in our culture today. Americans, from the get-go, are bred not to have to wait for much of anything. We have high speed Internet and microwaves. These days it doesn’t even take very long to whiten your teeth! And technology is only getting faster. But what does it mean to wait, truly? To really wait for something is a profound experience indeed. To be able to go about one’s business and truly practice patience can be life-altering.

Some examples of this in everyday life are those who wait for loved ones to come home from fighting to protect our country, those who wait for and illness to pass or for treatment of a particular disease to take effect and women who wait for the day when their child will make its way into the world to finally meet them face-to-face. Also couples who save the most intimate aspects of a relationship for the day they marry or someone who is waiting for a response on a major life change, such as one involving an adoption or pivotal career choice. All of these involve the kind of patience that is both active and inactive. This means there are times when a person must focus on patience, taking on only one day at a time and trying their best not to dwell on what is being awaited, lest it distract them from other equally important issues like raising children, a job, maintaining a home, etc. Actively waiting is manifested in actually focusing on the thing being waited for such as an expectant woman taking in the right nutrition, a couple planning the details of their wedding, or a wife writing and sending letters to her husband in the army.

Its easy to say that one gender is called to practice patience more than the other, or that one vocation requires more waiting than the next and perhaps on many levels this is true. But we all wait for something, whether we pursue that end or not. This is because waiting is something we do on a deeper level than in just our superficial daily grinds. People in abusive situations wait for the day they will feel loved. Children in orphanages wait and hope for the day they will be found and adopted. Some wait to hear from God and others to discover their true calling in life. Which inevitably brings us full circle because, ultimately, we are all called to wait. But the heart of the matter is the way in which we choose to wait. Will we take each moment for the gift that it is or perhaps pass by what has been given in pursuit of the thing we believe is so much greater? It is something that can be learned and perfected, but is also very unique from individual to individual. Thats what makes real waiting the lost art form that it is.