I am walking into the church hall with a properly prepared bible study under my arm – to be greeted by four (only!) ladies above the age of sixty. Obviously a little disappointed, because after a rough day of appointments and deadlines and dropping kids at school and sport, I spent the whole of last night polishing my Powerpoint slideshow to impress a full-house hall of 60-somethings. My theme – Psalm 130 – I wait upon the Lord.
I decide to pack away the projector and my laptop; seating myself at the table where the ladies have settled themselves down. There is this English auntie watching my every move. I read Psalm 130 in Afrikaans (my whole bible study is in Afrikaans for the sake of the rest of the crowd!) and peek at my notes under the Bible every now and then to sound wise and well educated. Nobody likes to wait, I say. We run from the one event to the other and gets frustrated and impatient when we have to wait at the doctor’s or find ourselves in line at a cashier where someone forgot to weigh their bananas... We all know the feeling, right? The English auntie doesn’t move her eyes, only that they now have a haziness about them, or maybe I am mistaking myself? “Jong, ek hoor hierdie storie van wag (I know this story of having to wait),” auntie Wanda interrupts me, “maar ons gee nie meer om om te wag nie. Dit het ons dalk vroeër gepla, maar nou is dit al wat ons kan doen. (but we don’t mind waiting. Previously it may have bothered us, but now we have nothing else to do)”
It feels like she is preaching to me. It feels like I am representing the entire younger generation that rushes from the one thing to the next, that gets angry if we don’t get things we want now, that bulldozes over others and rubs against hopeless ones to get to the front of the line.
The English auntie now really looks as if she wants to take her things and go and I am thinking of asking her if she even heard a word or if I have to switch to English.
“Can we please pray for my grandson – he had complications after an operation and I am afraid he is not going to make it,” she jumps the gun with a weary little voice. Oh it is so true what auntie Wanda said – all we can do is wait. Where are we rushing to? Why are we getting impatient? The time is here and now. And while waiting at the cashier, looking around to see a lady desperately asking for a prayer.
No well prepared teaching or sermon or professional powerpoint can beat my simple presence and the fact that I notice someone in need. We take hands in the circle and we pray. “I found peace and calmness. Like a child finding satisfaction with his mother, so I have found satisfaction. Wait upon the Lord, Israel, now and forever.”
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