February 2010

For a long time in American history, it’s been relatively taboo to admit you’re an atheist, or even an agnostic. In some ways, the bias favoring people of faith still holds. Imagine an atheist candidate for president trying to get nominated, much less elected, and the storm of controversy that would surround it.

January 2010

I travel sometimes for work. Every time I do, my wife, Amy, worries about me. Before a recent trip alone, she admonished me no less than four times to travel safely. Though I don’t have much control over that in flight, except for using my seat cushion as a floatation device in the event of a water landing, I told her I would.

January 2010

It’s no new revelation that we are spoiled rotten by the convenience of impulse satisfaction. We don’t need to mention the soul-destroying ease of fast food. And it’s impossible not to notice how people in line begin to seethe with impatience if a problem at a cash register threatens them with a few lost seconds.

Being made to wait rubs us wrong, right down to our patriotic roots. We seem to believe that we have a right to not have to wait for anything like those godless communists had to, waiting in line for toilet paper. Our soldiers fought and died for our rights, by God!

Ralph Waldo Emerson echoed this modern sentiment when he wrote, “How much of human life is lost in waiting.” We are trained to ‘make things happen.’ Waiting is regarded as a flaw. Product and service engineers work hard to figure out how to eliminate wait times for customers. Consider the impatience with the Internet when a page fails to load in less than five seconds.

But the real casualty in all this is a vital component of the soul that, if lost or weakened, makes the world an ugly, unforgiving place where building community is made impossible.

Having patience is one of the harder things we have to do. Yet the systems of life around us in nature speak of a sublime and powerful patience that accepts waiting as necessary to creation. The greater the work, the greater the patience required. This kind of waiting is not a passive thing. It is active, drawing upon deep reservoirs of strength that result in greater, more sustained endurance.

This spiritual dimension of waiting is referred to in the prophetic writing of Isaiah: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

In the soul that has learned the art of active waiting, an unexpected beauty emerges not unlike the canyon carved by a patient stream. These spires and vistas are of a depth of soul that others behold as acts of breathtaking forgiveness, and a fragrance of patience among others that harbors no veiled impatience like the faked politeness encountered too often in public.

Practiced, intentional patience cultivates relational qualities in individuals that enable community to grow.

This lost art of waiting can be rediscovered, but it is under siege by our culture of convenience. May 2010 be the year we learn to wait and let it breathe peace into our frantic schedules, painting our interactions with the bright colors of kindness that can change our world.

December 2009 Issue

I grew up in a family that went pretty much insane over Christmas gifts-and birthdays weren't much different.

I still remember how weird it was on my dad's 40th birthday when he came home with a swanky piece of jewelry for my mom and a new drum set for me. He bought them for us on his birthday.