A man after God's own heart

Waiting - has become for me such an unnatural posture. I sit quietly and stare at the distorted, worldly mould of an impatient heart eager for results and immediacy. Searching within, I find this to be neither a case of un-delayed gratification nor of petulant demands. It concerns healthy thy-kingdom come desires and a deeper longing to understand "wait" according to biblical tenets. With outstretched arms, I hold out the vision of a beautiful new normal beyond COVID-19, secure upon the foundation of waiting upon God. This life is one fully lived in the present moment - watchful and urgent yet at-ease and filled with expectant hope. What we could simply call 'active-waiting'. This falls farther from Noah's precarious 40 or 150-days in the ark, and much closer to Simeon and Anna's experiences. In their words and actions - with unmistakable and careful revelation - we can resonate with a lifelong posture of waiting in devotion to God. ...a man called Sime...

Could it be that God is using - Anthony, Agathon, Macarius, Poeman, Theodora, Sarah, Syncletica - unfamiliar names and lives to speak to us in the unfamiliar terrain of our day? Whereas we easily gravitate to the wisdom of Merton, Pascal, St. John of the Cross, Thomas a Kempis, John Bunyan or Mother Teresa of Calcutta, why not traverse further back in time? I'm no historian but from cursory readings - a few centuries after the resurrection of Christ and broadcast of the good news - we see how society's depraved condition drove these spiritual greats to flee to the desert to literally save their souls. A few more large backward strides, and we find ourselves face-to-face with Israel's similar depravity in the old testament. "Society...was regarded as a shipwreck from which each single individual man had to swim for his life...There were men who believed that to let oneself drift along, passively accepting the tenets and values of what they knew as society, was pure...

Today - 12 April 2020 - will likely go down in history as one of, if not the most unexpected Easter celebration of our generation. Can the intensifying passion of our hearts make good the loss of communion in community? We close our eyes - easily immersing in scenes of gentle hugs, firm handshakes, the warm glow of smiles and soft background music - as our heightened senses begin to exude and bask in a collective overflow of renewed love for our risen Christ. And we slowly come back to our sofa and living halls with echoes of virtual choirs, and an online service in wait. Our hearts remain affixed on the empty tomb, as the angel gives us a look as if to say - yes, it is now time to bow down and worship. Our spirits are roused, with a more tender receptiveness to the message of hope this year. Nothing has changed, yet everything is different. Like many of us, I too ask what the new normal will bring. Not just for the house of God, but for how we will live, work and play in a pos...