"Author and Presbyterian minister Eugene Petersen was quoted in an interview as saying, 'The assumption of spirituality is that always God is doing something before I know it. So the task is not to get God to do something I think needs to be done, but to become aware of what God is doing so that I can respond to it and participate and take delight in it.'
This is the motivation behind waiting prayer. We place ourselves in postures of the heart, in the stillness that enables us to become aware of what God is doing so that we can gradually say yes to it with our whole being." (Kidd, p. 129)*
What do you make of this spiritual insight?
Shifting the preferred, modern mindset of being in control to letting go and trusting God is often a difficult journey. I suspect it was tough in ancient times too. Take Daniel, for example. A young man at he prime of life and with plans is suddenly taken captive and relocated to a foreign country and culture where he lived thereafter.
Franciscan priest and author Richard Rohr describes the spiritual transformation process as moving from order to disorder to reorder. Often suffering triggers transformation. Often waiting prayer is involved as we process, adjust, and eventually receive unexpected happiness.
Kidd, S. M. When the heart waits: Spiritual direction for life's sacred questions. New York, NY: HarperOne, 1990.
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