Waiting versus Passivity.

Life seems to be summed up in two hard words: Balance and Paradox. You are either stuck trying to find balance or you are trying to figure out the truth of a paradox (which is hard just because of the nature of a paradox). 

One of these that has come up so much to me recently is waiting versus passivity. The paradox is that we are called to wait but we are not to be passive. Where is the line there? How do you wait but still be active? 

Does that seem like a paradox to anyone else? Or is it just me?

Wikepedia's wiktionary defines waiting as: 

1. (transitive, now rare) To delay movement or action until the arrival or occurrence of; to await. (Now generally superseded by "wait for".) 
2. (intransitive) To delay movement or action until some event or time; to remain neglected or in readiness.

   Wait here until your car arrives.

   
   

It defines passivity as:

1. Being subjected to an action without producing a reaction.
2. Taking no action.

   He remained passive during the protest.

3. (grammar) Being in the passive voice.
4. (psychology) Being inactive and submissive in a relationship

The difference that I find here is that waiting is for or on or until. As Christians, we wait for God to move, we wait on God, we wait until God shows us what to do. On the other hand, passivity is just inactivity. It does not have a  purpose, and it does not respond or react. 

So what does this mean for me, waiting on God but still being active. Well, I'm active in waiting. I am actively expecting God to move; I am watching and listening to hear Him. Waiting on God does not mean I do nothing. It means I draw close to Him and choose to trust that His plan will be revealed when it should be and how it should be. I fight passivity - I fight the urge to just check out, to do it on my own, to worry. 

A little more on waiting - God gives similar commands when He says "remain," "stay," "abide," "rest." It is a matter of trust. Worrying is an automatic move out of God's presence and towards your old sinful flesh. Let God be the object of those 'remain, stay, abide, rest' verbs. Focus on the Father, actively seeking to spend time with Him, trusting that any other 'active' thing that He has called you to do, He will prepare the way. Trust that any need that you may be tempted to fill on your own, He will fill. If there is action for you to take, then you wait until He has told you about that action. 

This is so much easier to say (or type) than to do. There is a poem that ends like this - "When you can't see God's hand, trust His heart." This gets at the core of waiting, remaining, abiding, and resting. Value your relationship with God, and trust that anything else He has for you in this life will be a result of His blessing it and preparing you rather than a result of you going out and "making it happen."