“We may have ten possible images of tomorrow and for each one of these there may be ten images of the next day, giving a hundred possible images of the day after tomorrow and a thousand of the day after that, and so on, which means that the uncertainty of the future increases rapidly as we move our imagination into it.”
—Kenneth Boulding, Ecodynamics
The other day I had a virtual reunion with two dear friends. The three of us met and became close during graduate school, and we’ve remained friends for the past 34 years. It was wonderful to catch up with one another about the year we’ve each experienced. While there were commonalities, there were also unique experiences for each of us.
My time with these friends underscored the reality that 2020 has been/continues to be challenging—for all of us. In addition, everything feels uncertain as we await the coronavirus vaccine, a new presidential administration and whatever unforeseen curveballs are thrown our way as the calendar page turns to a new year.
How can we find inner peace when we are living in a time that is the very definition of “tumultuous”? How do we find equanimity when we have absolutely no idea what the future holds?
In such a moment, writer and theologian Henri Nouwen may offer a path to some measure of peace with his concept of “active waiting.”
“Waiting is essential to the spiritual life. But waiting as a disciple of Jesus is not an empty waiting. It is a waiting with a promise in our hearts that makes already present what we are waiting for. We wait during Advent for the birth of Jesus. We wait after Easter for the coming of the Spirit, and after the ascension of Jesus we wait for his coming again in glory. We are always waiting, but it is a waiting in the conviction that we have already seen God’s footsteps.
Waiting for God is an active, alert—yes, joyful—waiting. As we wait we remember him for whom we are waiting, and as we remember him we create a community ready to welcome him when he comes.”
—Henri Nouwen, https://henrinouwen.org/meditation/active-waiting/
If, as Nouwen asserts, “Waiting is essential to the spiritual life,” how is that waiting expressed/experienced in my spirit/on my spiritual path now, on the cusp of the new year? How might my ordinary waiting become “active waiting”? What kind of community am I creating? Accepting that the future is unknowable, how might my spiritual practices offer a measure of inner peace in my waiting? These are questions I am asking myself as we approach the first days of 2021.
“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”
—Vaclav Havel
—Jenifer Hanson, Prairiewoods director