The Waiting is the Hardest Part

With apologies to Tom Petty, I have been thinking a lot lately about “waiting.” Some of us are “waiting on a girl” (sorry, Foreigner flashback). Some of us are “Waiting on the Lord” (sorry, General Conference flashback). For a long time, I feel like I have been “waiting” to retire and get on with whatever was coming next.

Mary must be on the same page, because I recently caught her listening to Neal Maxwell’s excellent BYU Devotional, given in 1979, entitled “Patience.” Here are a few of my favorite quotes from that talk, delivered as only Elder Maxwell could:

Patience is a willingness, in a sense, to watch the unfolding purposes of God with a sense of wonder and awe, rather than pacing up and down within the cell of our circumstances.

Patience helps us use, rather than to protest, these seeming flat periods of life, becoming filled with quiet wonder over the past and with anticipation for that which may lay ahead, instead of demeaning the particular flatness through which we may be passing at the time.

Well, as of tomorrow, I am officially retired. I have had my farewell dinner with the judges and some donuts and reminiscing with my wonderful colleagues at the court. And I know what is coming next–celebrating my father’s 86th birthday on Saturday, a trip to Boston on July 4 to see our newest grandchild, a return to Colorado in August to greet our youngest son when he returns home from his mission to Colombia, and entering the Missionary Training Center on August 21 in Provo, Utah to officially begin our 18-month mission to Québec City, Québec. What I don’t know, Elder Maxwell, is how God’s purposes will unfold. But I am willing to stop pacing and demeaning and begin watching and anticipating.

In the immortal words of Axl Rose, “all [I] need [is] a little patience.”