A Prayer for the Waiting

Post Author: Shannon E. Sullivan

A slightly different version of this prayer was published on shannonesullivan.com following the election before results were announced. It has been adapted for Advent.

Do you like waiting? I write about how in dealing with infertility, you are often stuck in two-week increments: two weeks to ovulation, two weeks of waiting. Repeat. Only, it isn’t always so simple either — long cycles or short cycles, closed clinics or other disruptions. For 53 months, I felt like I was endlessly waiting. Advent is celebrated as the liturgical season of waiting, waiting for Christ to come again. But waiting is exhausting. It’s even demoralizing sometimes. The following prayer does not romanticize the waiting but seeks to be open to God’s presence in the midst of it.

God who wipes our tears away, hurry up already. The weight of waiting has left me spent, unable to focus. I have no control, no reasoning can get me out of this, and scrolling often makes it worse. I want you to swoop in and zap my struggles away. I want you to lift up the lowly, now. I want you to make the world new, now.

But you don’t.

So instead, guide my breath. Teach me to rest when I can and give me strength to push through the exhaustion when I can’t. May your Spirit inspire someone to bring me snacks in the meantime and maybe a little encouragement. Help me to see this time of waiting as a time of preparation. Open my heart to the possibilities of love and to the work for justice that can happen even in this place of waiting. Amen.

Rev. Shannon E. Sullivan (she/her/hers) is a life-long feminist and United Methodist currently serving the community of Frederick, Maryland, as the associate pastor of Calvary. She is a proud graduate of Drew Theological School in Madison, New Jersey. She is married to Aaron Harrington, her high school sweetheart, who is a pilot and all around aviation geek. They have one living child who they are raising in a house cluttered by books and airplane parts. Follow her author page on Facebook or her website shannonesullivan.com for more of her writing.

Image by: "Just a minute" by mpardo.photo is marked with CC0 1.0
Used with permission