Friday prayer: tired of waiting

Image courtesy of BRAINLOC, rgbstockcom.

Good God,

I am tired of waiting.

I am tired of waiting on the vaccine rollout.

I am tired of waiting on my kid to stop spinning in his desk chair and finish his virtual schoolwork.

I am tired of waiting on church folk to realize that their pastors do not come with a Teflon coating.

I am tired of waiting on having my home office to myself again, as much as I love my “co-workers.”

I am tired of waiting on the doctors’ offices and hospitals to dig out from under their mountainous patient load so that my father can have more hands-on care for his multiple, critical illnesses.

I am tired of waiting on the unmasked people I see at Walmart to acknowledge we’ll all come out of this pandemic faster and better if we’ll think about ourselves as responsible to one another.

I’m tired of waiting. I’m tired, period.

I know I’m not alone.

Good God.

Yes, I know down to my cells that you are a good God.

Out of your goodness you gently remind me that waiting is part of the bargain –

not just in this time of pandemic but also in this sacred season of Advent –

and you urge me to wrangle a blessing out of the waiting.

To wait with deepening faith that things won’t always be this hard.

To use my waiting to notice the things that just aren’t right so that I will do something about them.

To love the ones I’m with as I wait and to get creative in the ways I care for those to whom we can’t be closer than six feet.

I still don’t wanna wait.

But I will, and I’ll do so with hope, by God.

Come, Lord Jesus, in our good God’s timing.

Amen.

Laura Stephens-Reed is a clergy and congregational coach working with ministers and churches across the ecumenical spectrum. Having served in a variety of pastoral roles and denominations, she is primarily affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and has ministerial standing in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Based in northwest Alabama (United States), Laura is married to a United Methodist pastor, and they have a seven-year-old son. She blogs weekly at laurastephensreed.com.

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