The Prayer Thread is a collection of teachings and practical prompts to help as we learn to pray in community. This text was originally delivered on June 26, 2024 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
Sometimes, we ask God for something in prayer and then we wait to get what we asked for.
Sometimes, we ask God about things that happen in life, and we wait for answers.
Sometimes, we present big questions to God and we wait to see how the response will impact big decisions in our lives.
Sometimes, we collectively present the trauma and mourning of tragedy to God in prayer, and we wait to see how the family or community will be impacted.
Sometimes, in verbal prayer, we linger on a word or line of text and we wait for God in the pause of a short silence.
Sometimes, in quiet prayer, we offer a whole session of silence and we wait for God in the stillness.
Sometimes, in sung prayer, there is a poignant pause, and we wait for the Spirit of God to fill our hearts.
Sometimes, simply in the face of life, we find ourselves groping and hoping, and we realize that we didn’t recognize that we were waiting on God even in the midst of the muck and mess.
Sometimes, we take a step back and reflect on life, and in doing so, we see that we’ve been waiting on God as a deep wellsping and source of life, sustaining us from the depths and moving us toward fulfillment.
Sometimes, we see that we are always waiting for God, on God, and in God, and though the waiting itself feels partial and incomplete, the constancy of our desire while waiting in God also nourishes and satisfies.
May we wait well and have our fill!
