Article August 12, 1922 Issue

Waiting Time

GRACE M. PUTNAM

It is sometimes said that the hardest thing a person is ever called upon to do is to wait. I well remember an experience I had the first time I turned to Christian Science for help. The healing was almost instantaneous. My joy over this quick proof of the efficacy of Christian Science was so great that I wanted to tell my family all about it; but one minor discordant condition seemed to remain, and I dreaded their criticism. I thought that I could soon get rid of this; but it lingered, until, impatient at my slowness in overcoming it, I called up a practitioner and asked why the complete healing seemed to be delayed. The practitioner's only answer was, "Read Lamentations, third chapter, twenty-sixth verse,—'It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.'" Needless to say, the difficulty disappeared, as soon as I saw that it was a picture of my own impatience. From that day to this I have been studying to understand more fully what it means to "both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord;" and I have seen, as I studied, that, although there may seem to be many ways of waiting, there is only one right way. For example: there is the waiting which is simply idleness,—doing nothing, thinking nothing; there is the waiting which runs around trying to imagine itself occupied, but which in reality is not accomplishing anything; and then, again, there is the right waiting, which improves every moment in useful thinking and acting.

Our Leader says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 22): "'Work out your own salvation,' is the demand of Life and Love, for to this end God worketh with you. 'Occupy till I come!' Wait for your reward, and 'be not weary in well doing.'" The wise Christian Scientist is neither doing some one else's work, nor neglecting his own. He is studying Christian Science, qualifying himself to hear the "still small voice" of the divine guide,—Principle. Neither is he harking back to past mistakes, nor prophesying as to the future. He realizes that the first four letters of the word "mistake" show the nature of it,—that it is a mist-step. He sees that when error has caught him napping, and has put him on the wrong track, if he wakes to see his mistake he has a right to know that God, divine Principle, stands ever ready to lead the honest, repentant thought back to the right way. He knows that he does not have to stay in the mist.

The Christian Scientist also realizes the futility of prophesying about that which is utterly and entirely in the hands of omniscience. He realizes that while he is absorbed in contemplation of the past, or lost in dreamy plans for the future, the "now" is likely to glide in unheard and unseen; and he may lose that opportunity for quick transit to the solution of his present problem. So he takes the waiting time for work, that he may not be asleep when he should be awake, and overactive when he should "be still, and know." Demonstrations that are more important and far-reaching than we can at the moment perceive are often made in the waiting time. We realize this when, material stress and the seeming collisions with materiality having confronted us, we see how much more easily we conquer fear, and how much better we work in every way because of what has been accomplished during the waiting time. Jesus said to his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane, "Tarry ye here, and watch." The command still holds good. While we tarry we must watch. The disciples slept, and paid dearly for their disobedience.

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