Article January 21, 1933 Issue

True Waiting

RUTH M. GRIFFITH

How many of us, upon being lovingly told to wait either for some much desired thing or circumstance or for the answer to some problem of long standing, have assumed an attitude of anxiety and even impatience and fretfulness? Was this not because of our acceptance of the false or negative sense of the term "wait," the sense that would imply a condition whereby one's progress seems obstructed, so that all one can do is to remain for an indefinite time in a passive, unprofitable state of thinking?

While reading one of the Bible Lessons in the Christian Science Quarterly, the writer was impressed with the frequency of the use of the words "wait" and "waiting" in connection with God, together with the promised results of waiting on God. This prompted a closer study of the word "wait," which revealed much of true value. A dictionary defines "wait" in part as follows: "To watch; attend; to stay in expectation; to be ready to serve or to execute orders." Thus we find that true waiting is a condition fraught with alertness, activity, and expectancy. In order to wait on God, then, we must be spiritually alert, watchful, ready to serve and obey or execute His divine orders. Should not this be a joyous experience?

In connection with waiting another quality of great significance, frequently referred to in the Scriptures, is patience. This is a much needed quality in solving human problems. One definition describes "patience" as suggesting "quiet waiting for what is expected or persistence in what has been begun." The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews exhorts us: "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." True patience does not condone or tolerate evil in any degree, but, instead, untiringly and lovingly acknowledges nothing but the good, and confidently waits on the manifestation of that which alone is real, namely God, good, and His manifestation. Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, whose life was an example of true waiting and of patience, has written in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 454): "Wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind, and form the perfect concept. Patience must 'have her perfect work.'"

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