Wait and Be... Do you think He really means it?

Dear L.,

I really would like to have a nice long chat. My mind keeps tripping along the same garden path in hopes of bumping into yours and spending an afternoon weaving together the daisy chains of our mutual fancies. And of course by "garden path" I really mean a wish to clamber up the stairs to your room-with-the-couch and throw my feet up for several hours while we sip our respective tea and Dr. Pepper. And I probably wouldn't say no to some Oreos.

But the couch is still a few months off at best, so instead I'll send you what I'm mulling over this morning. It's funny, because my devotion in "God Calling" was all about Dwelling in the Spirit.
"Take time for prayer. Take more time to be alone with Me...Seek sometimes not even to hear Me. Seek a silence of spirit-understanding with Me. Be not afraid. All is well. Dwell much on what I did, as well as what I said."

Then I saw a message from my-friend-sent-by-God-to-pray-for-me in Haiti before I found out about the Terrible-Awful. She asked how I was and I wrote her the thoughts below. It wasn't even until I sat to write this to you that I even connected to two. I should add (hopefully) gaining observational skills to my time of learning patience...

I am learning patience in my impatience. It's easy to Move to Haiti with the word to WAIT and BE. It's hard to live in Haiti with the word to WAIT and BE. Or perhaps WAIT and BE would be hard anywhere, but here there are less distractions to keep me from the task of simply BEing.
I am able to trust God with my Life, but my Time seems to be a hard thing to give over to Him. I want to Do things, to be my idea of "productive" - a very American interpretation I am sure.
Part of me sees the Goodness of this Quiet Time - - getting to know my neighbors each day when we gather around the well to pump water - - getting speak with Judges and Lawyers and Secretaries and Teachers and Business Owners as I help out with my brother's English School - - getting to be there when someone is having a hard day and needs someone to sit and Be with them - - getting so much time to slowly unfold and process the grief I carry from the Terrible-Awful of losing my sister and my grandmother - - getting several hours each morning in the Word and in Worship and in a Quiet Place
So much Getting. So much being Given.
I spell it out and feel ashamed of how impatient I am, but it would be a lie to deny how Useless and Ineffective I sometimes find myself.
God laid it upon my heart to Sit and Wait with Him, this I Know to be true. I also know it is probably a time of preparation for coming movement. A Vital time to hone my weapons and allow myself to be readied. It's just hard on the human aspects of me to do this while I see everyone around me charging through their day, checking tasks off lists and having tangible results for their efforts.

Be Still and Know.
Wait and Be.

- - It was hard for Abraham and Sarah to continue to believe the promise of nations while they watched themselves move past the age of parenthood. Sarah attempted to "aid" God's timing, and created grief where only blessing was meant.
- - Joseph had to wait most of his life to see the fulfillment of God's promise, and he didn't even try to meddle with the timing.
- - It was hard for Martha as she busied herself with preparations. She asked for Jesus to send Mary to help her, but he told her Mary made the correct choice.
God is such a relational God, such an intimate God. He didn't just Speak us into existence, He formed Adam from the dust of the earth. He held the raw, unformed lump of ground and gently kneaded into into place. He fashioned arms and legs, made impressions for eyes and ears, carved out a chin, and created a mouth to intake the very breath of His Life. No wonder our Universal Language is Song. Are we surprised when the Holy Moments bring forth a Dialect of Poetic Reverence? What else would you have done with lips Kissed by the Divine?
He could have jerked us into existence with a Word, but instead He held us in His hands and worked our hearts through the shape of His fingers. God is a God of reckless abandon when it comes to His love for us, but He is a God of gracious patience and the willingness to wait for His bride as she slowly matures throughout the slow trickle of time. Granted, God knows time in way we cannot possibly understand, at least those still living, whom C.S. Lewis calls "those who have not yet been unmasked." And yet the point is He Waits. He is content to Be with us in our weakness, in our smallness, in our inability to move. And perhaps this is the point, the reason why He asks us to Wait. Because in all honesty, it is never really us who are obliged to Wait in the first place. God is a God of all times, He doesn't Need to Wait, He simply IS. Our attempt to Be Still and Wait upon the Lord is a little ridiculous - you can't really Wait on a being who Always IS. He waits for Us. He stills and distills Himself into the single moment that is our lives in order to Be With Us. He already exists where He has planned for us to be, He simply waits for our consciousness to catch up.

L., pray for me to remain steadfast in my desire to be Still and Wait, and for Grace that my Spirit will recognize the gift it is to remain, to dwell, to Be in Papa's Presence. In this moment I am at rest, but there is no mistaking how Human these bones are, and how easily I forget.
Love Always,
- R

but those who wait (who hope) in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.