"It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles. And their words seemed like idle tales, and they did not believe them." (Luke 24:10-11)
The seasons of our waiting come are often the result of waiting for other people. Like the women who came to the tomb, and first discovered that their witness to the miracle was treated skeptically, we find ourselves with seasons of waiting, because we are waiting to be taken seriously.
It may be that others are turning our waiting into a game. We are treated like fools. Our experience is disrespected. Sometimes the game is closed because the players have created a closed circle of bias and prejudice.
What are we doing while the Waiting Game is forced upon us by others? Are we patient? Are we unfaltering in our pressing forward with our dreams and goals? Those two questions appear to be opposites to one another, but they are not. Patience and conviction should exist together if we want to make our Waiting Game a positive experience.
At the Gathering we are playing the Waiting Game between Easter and Pentecost. What
this means is that we are considering the subject of waiting: what we
are waiting for in life, how effectively we wait, whether we are waiting
for the proper things, and perhaps even if we have given up and stopped
waiting. Jesus told his disciples to wait for "the promise of the Father" in those
10 days between His ascension and Pentecost. We have extended this time
from Easter to Pentecost with the desire to learn about waiting. We all
do it. We might as well play the game together.
