Waiting, impatiently waiting…that is how we choose to spend our days. We wait, wait for the next piece of gossip to drop, the next big story to hit the press, the next terrorist attack, the next result from a series of medical tests, whatever it is, it seems that all we do is wait. In the meantime the world around us spins at a dizzying pace out of control; instead of doing our part to fix what is broken…we wait. Wait for someone else to step up and to say “Here am I send me.”

We yearn to hear a word from God on the matters of life as they pertain to us and likewise on the affairs of men. Sadly our yearning does not translate into seeking and so we continue to wait, never realizing that failure to do our part will in no way solicit the answers nor the one who has them. We are hard pressed on every side never realizing the depth of our own despair, the realization itself would in fact buckle our knees and bow our heads in honor and in shame at what we have done and not done with the power we possess. So we wait, thinking to ourselves that there must be more, more of this and more of that to satisfy our schizophrenic appetites. The truth is we are a hungry people, unfortunately there is just simply too much to choose from and so we stand waiting for our mind to make its choice all the while our spirit is being starved.

It stands to reason: when we don’t know what we want, something is better than nothing. But we are a peculiar people; for we would rather go without than be nourished by what we know is good. We long for truth, justice, and mercy but we have no earthly idea how to achieve them, perhaps we should then consult the heavens and the one who created both. What do we do when we do not know what to do? To do nothing is an illogical choice…and so is waiting, for they are one and the same.

Instead let us consult the Word in the same manner that we pray to the one who spoke it…without ceasing. Then we shall have our answers and we shall have the truth…it must not stop here though, the seeking must continue so as to know how to implement what which was spoken when we sought. This is what it means to redeem the time, that instead of idleness in the face of a clock that will eventually run its course, never to be wound again, we should employ ourselves at his service…seeking, listening, and doing.