‘Strength in waiting’ – Jo Henderson
One of my favourite holiday photos is a slightly blurry picture of a sunrise outside Athens Airport. It’s not my favourite because it’s the best sunrise picture ever taken (it’s not). It’s my favourite because it came at the end of a very, very long night.
The previous day we were supposed to fly to Crete. It had been a long-awaited, much-needed, holiday and we were supposed to take a three-hour, direct flight (purchased early at the lowest rate) from our local airport direct to the island. It was our first flight with three children and so we had carefully planned the most efficient, cheapest, quickest route.
On arrival at the airport, we were told our flight had been cancelled. We spent three increasingly stressful hours trying to simultaneously entertain our children and find out what the flight provider/holiday provider/insurance company might be able to do for us. (At one point being offered an alternative flight that would leave three hours before our return flight was due, giving us just enough time to arrive in Crete and make our way from one gate to the other).
Eventually, we managed to organise ourselves onto another flight which would take us to Athens Airport, where we would wait overnight for a further flight to Crete. Another five hours were spent at Gatwick, followed by a three-hour flight where we were distributed throughout the very busy plane, much to the consternation of other passengers who had to sit with our sticky-fingered and fractious offspring, followed by a night at Athens Airport where everything was closed and – unsurprisingly – none of our children were willing/able to sleep. The night ahead seemed very long.
In Psalm 130, David writes:
‘I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
I wait for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.’
I thought of this verse frequently that night. It struck me that our family is not very good at waiting. We are ‘the generation that pace in front of the microwave,’ and if you were to meet me in a post office queue, I would be the one huffing about it!
Waiting is hard. It tests us. But interesting things happen in our brain while we wait. For us , frustration, anger and resentment burnt for a while. But, when they faded, something surprising took their place: gratitude. We were together and safe – this wasn’t a disaster situation, we were going on holiday. We weren’t in prison. We all know that waiting is one of the hardest things that those we serve experience: waiting for a court date, waiting for a sentence date, waiting to hear from their lawyer or their families. Many of our prisons are now remand prisons. When I did my training at HMP Lewes, the first thing we were told is that remand prisons impact mental health in a different way because of the waiting. I was swiftly reminded that there are many worse things than waiting at an airport.
Waiting is deeply uncomfortable, sometimes it hurts. But, in the Bible, we repeatedly see examples of waiting as seasons of both pain and transformation. We see Joseph spending years in prison, the Israelites wandering in the desert, Abraham living out his years with no children, Simeon waiting to meet Jesus, and the disciples waiting for Easter morning are just a few.
Waiting has value.
On Wednesday, many of us will be celebrating the beginning of Lent. Perhaps you will be fasting or going without something. Whatever that ‘something’ is, you are experiencing the wait. Or maybe you have some waiting to do yourself this month. Together, let’s harness that feeling to inspire us to pray for those in prison who must wait.
And, in waiting, let’s pray that we grow in our understanding of God’s power and increase our yearning for Him to move. Let’s pray that, in waiting, we grow in our dependence on God, and that that dependence is our greatest strength. Waiting is the season of transformation.
For our family, the night ended, the morning came and the sun rose. The holiday may have been shorter. But we appreciated it more. Bizarrely, it’s one of our girls’ favourite family memories. While I would never have thanked God for it at the time, I thank Him for it now.
So, as we enter the season of waiting, I want to leave you with a favourite poem that reminds us of the strength that comes from the precious word ‘Wait’.
Jo Henderson is Prison Fellowship’s Trusts and Grants Officer.
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