High on the Mount of Olives, there was no rolling thunder or sudden blaze of lightning, no dramatic signal that reality was about to give way to something entirely new. Christ spoke as He always had, and the disciples responded as they had learned to do, listening with partial understanding and perhaps nodding just enough to appear slightly confident.

Before leaving, Jesus gave them instructions. Stay in Jerusalem and wait for what the Father has promised. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes. Don’t panic or rush off, don’t scatter. Stay together and keep your wits about you. Something is coming, but not on your schedule. Peter, this includes you. Wait.

These are not the kind of final instructions most of us love.

Waiting for God’s timing can be incredibly frustrating! Most of us lack the patience for it. We’re encouraged to reflect, pray, and contemplate. Let’s face it, it’s challenging, sometimes nearly impossible, to spend our days in reflection and prayer. We already asked God, and He already knows what we need, so what more should we pray for? So, we often find ourselves idly scrolling through emails and messages, searching for solutions or the estimated arrival time of help and salvation. We need to do something! Often, we jump ahead, planning for possible outcomes, good or bad, pros and cons, so we can quickly react once God responds. We should use this time to get organized so we can resume our activities immediately after God reveals our next steps.

The disciples must have been exhausted after Christ ascended to the Father. They had been intensely active for three years and experienced profound emotions during the crucifixion and resurrection. And so much more. They didn’t have limitless energy. So, Christ provided them with a gift, knowing they needed time to regroup before terrifying tongues of fire descended on them. The ten-day waiting period before Pentecost allowed them to be together, to support one another, and to rest.

What if we viewed our waiting for God’s timing, not as a trial, but as a gift from Him? It is an opportunity He gives us to breathe, pause, and be fully present. We frequently complain about a lack of time, yet when we do have it, especially during waiting periods, we find ways to pass the time or even worse, kill time. Instead, what if we embraced living in the moment and gained from the waiting itself?

Let’s set aside our lists, plans, and pros and cons for the outcome, and go outside without turning each moment into a task. Let’s sit at a picnic table in the park and watch squirrels chase each other, chattering and gossiping among themselves. Let’s watch the light move through the leaves without needing it to be useful. Maybe it’s raining, so why not read that book we’ve been really wanting to read? Not the one we need to finish for the upcoming book club meeting, but the one we’ve put aside because of a lack of time. How about getting out our photo albums to reminisce about those places and people in our lives, smiling a little and maybe even shedding a tear. Let’s call a friend and talk about everything and nothing. What if we even dared…get ready for it… to take a nap? The world won’t screech to a halt, and we might actually be more pleasant to be around since we’re less exhausted.

Ah, but what about that nasty idea that idle hands are the devil’s playground? I can’t think of anything the devil would hate more than our being fully present, taking the time to see, feel, smell, and hear God in every moment. Letting Him, our Great Creator, speak to us, and taking this precious time to listen.

If we remain present in the waiting, this beautiful gift of “downtime,” we will see Christ’s light breaking upon the waves, hear His voice in the rain falling through leaves, or in the sudden song of a bird. We will remember His promise as we watch the sun set each evening, only to rise again and welcome a new day. We will sense Him in the fragrant flowers that slowly open toward the morning without haste, in tides that come and go effortlessly, in trees rooted in silence older than time itself. If we are still and listen closely with all our senses, the world becomes almost unbearably subtle. Feel the butterfly’s wings enhancing the rotation of the earth, and understand the meaning of the breeze moving through the grass like a forgotten whisper.

Let’s allow moments of quiet, awe, laughter, and tears to linger, unpressured by our hurried expectations. Then, when the next big or small thing happens, the one we have been eagerly and impatiently waiting for, we will be rested, restored, present, and ready to move forward as God intended. We may have even learned something during this time that will help us, or others, in this beautiful life.

Christ never left the apostles alone while they were waiting, and He never leaves us either. He gave us a promise and He is there in the waiting.

“I am with you always, to the end of the age.”