Why Wait? (09/19/2024)

Yesterday, my husband and I were driving home from Milwaukee when a woman in the center lane unexpectedly changed lanes in front of us. My husband slammed on the brakes, thankfully. We avoided a potentially serious accident barely. The closeness of that brush with calamity shook us. As we drove on, my mind was inundated with thoughts from just this week of individuals who were no longer with us, who had passed unexpectedly. And the Spirit planted the question in my mind. “Why wait?”

Why do we wait to do good, to make changes, to strive for the worthwhile, to reach out, to forgive another, to help another struggling during rough times? Why do we wait to start that new prayer regimen or to sign up for bible study? Why do we wait to do the potential good we see before us that would grow our relationships with our LORD and one another and even ourselves? Why do we wait?

By the time we arrived home, I was ready to tear into life – all of it, the letters I’d been meaning to write, the closets I’d been meaning to clean, the phone calls I’d put on my list to make, the invitations to others to come for dinner that I’d postponed, the check I’d meant to write to that charity for the homeless, the extra time in prayer with my LORD. That brush with tragedy shook me, but I realized that maybe I needed that shaking.

Change isn’t easy for us. But it is part of the walk of a disciple. We are called to daily conversion, to daily turn more closely to our LORD and to allow the LORD’s love to transform us from within. I remembered the song I’d learned when I was doing a study of the various religions. The Quakers sing “Simple Gifts” which goes like this:

Tis the gift to be simple,

‘Tis the gift to be free.

‘Tis the gift to come down

Where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves

In the place just right,

‘Twill be in the valley

Of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,

To bow and to bend

We shan’t be ashamed,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning,

Turning we come ‘round right.

How about you? Are there things you want to change but you haven’t begun? Are there turns you know are right, but you haven’t made? Why wait?

I think of the parable of the prodigal son. I think of the son’s realization that what he truly desires and needs are with the Father, and he turn and returns. And I think of the great jubilation because of the return, not just of the Father but of the son.

May this day find us “turning” toward the LORD, toward goodness and light, toward love and mercy, toward life.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.