Active Waiting

This weekend, we will be continuing in our #exodusseries with two important moments in the narrative.

Our main emphasis will be diving deep into the parting of the sea as the people fled from Egypt.

However, before we can get there, we will be pausing to recall the final of the ten plagues of Egypt. Even with all of the nuisances and outright terrifying events that have happened during the first nine plagues, Pharaoh will still not let the people go. So arrives the final plague – the death of the firstborn. It is only when his own family is affected that Pharaoh finally gives in.

In this midst of this story, there is the second narrative of how God works to ensure that God’s people will be safe. We see the institution of the Passover festival and meal – a time to remember two things. First, that God protected us. And second, that sometimes God pushes us to get moving.

As the old saying goes, “pray to God and then row your boat ashore.”

This practice is called active waiting. It means that even if things cannot be as they once were, and even if things are not yet back to our new normal, there are still some things we can do to fulfill God’s purposes here and now.

We, my friends, are in a long period of waiting. Of liminality. Of the already but not yet. Many of us feel as though our long night has gone on beyond what we can take and we do not know when the sun will finally rise.

But, as my grandmother used to remind me, it is always darkest just before the dawn.

Dawn will break. That is certain, even if we do not know when.

In the meantime, find every way that you can to display God’s love to all those around you, to work for peace, to bind up the brokenhearted, and seek justice for the oppressed. That is how children of God actively wait.

Blessings, Pastor Janie