On the surface, this statement is a bit ridiculous. How can you wait for a supreme presence that is everywhere all the time? How can you wait for a loving presence that is constantly filling you with life? Dietrich Bonhoeffer says something nice in his short book, "Creation". The creating word of God is a continuing word of God. If God was ever to stop saying our name we would utterly cease to exist. So, every aspect of creation is constantly affirmed (or loved) by the Creator.
But knowing that there is air all around me, and breathing deeply the breath of life are two different things. Knowing that God is everywhere and knowing the God who is everywhere are miles apart. Here is where the waiting comes.
Last week, I mentioned that Christian maturity can be measured by four elements:
grounding in prayer,
an assurance of God's presence,
the freedom to make choices,
and the orientation to service (or better, love).
These will map out the general themes of the next four conversational sermons. This week we will reflect on silence, assurance and prayer as a continual engagement with ineffable presence of God, something we often have no awareness of at all.
So, what does it mean to you to wait for God?
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