Waiting

Waiting Can Be The Worst

During the Christmas season, there is a lot of waiting. Christians are waiting for the coming of Christ. Kids are waiting for the coming of presents. Retail workers are waiting for the season of long lines to come to an end.

It seems like everyone is waiting for something.

I like to think of myself as a patient person, but I’ve always hated waiting.

When I was young, I was a big fan of the New York Yankees. My bedroom walls were lined with posters of Derek Jeter, Don Mattingly and many other Yankee greats.

There was a time when our family did not have the internet or cable TV, which made finding the nightly Yankee scores very difficult. My bedtime fell before the sports segment would come on during the 10pm news, so I often had to wait until the next day to find out how the Yankees did.

For those young readers who are confused by this, just picture a world where Twitter is broken, your cell phone is glued to the wall and the only text messages are the magnet letters stuck to the refrigerator. Crazy, right??

Since I didn’t like to wait to find out the Yankee scores I had a couple of choices: 1) I could wait around or 2) I could look around.

I eventually learned to go with choice #2. With my parents help, I found out that there was a free hotline that I could dial in to that would read off the baseball scores. After a quick call, I could sleep well knowing if the Yankees won or lost each night.

As time went by, I became less reliant on that sports score hotline. We got the internet, then we got ESPN, then we got cell phones that send out non-stop alerts. I no longer have to wait to find out if my favorite teams won or lost.

Eventually things will happen that will bring our waiting to an end. But that often takes long than we want. And until it does, we are left twiddling our thumbs & waiting. (Does anyone actually twiddle their thumbs?)

That is when we are confronted with two choices: we can either wait around or look around, and find a way to take action.

 

Photo credit: Wikipedia