On waiting well...

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I don't do much "proper" carp fishing these days, but a couple of times a year I'll end up sat behind a pair of rods waiting for the buzzers to scream into life with a disgruntled carp on the other end. My favourite style of fishing is float fishing, but for both of my brothers their preferred type of fishing is modern carp angling, and- to be fair- they're good at it. In fact, it's quite an education to watch them fish. It may appear to a casual observer that they're just sat there waiting for something to happen, but nothing could be further from the truth.

In those periods between runs, they're rarely inactive. They're making up pva bags, tying rigs, scanning the water for signs of carp showing, crumbling boilies, spodding, cooking, brewing the kettle, thinking about what to do differently- theirs is an active waiting, which is probably why they catch a fair few carp.

There's a fair bit of waiting spoken about in the Bible, too. The Old Testament people of God were waiting for the coming Messiah, after his resurrection Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Spirit, as Christians we're now waiting for Jesus' "Second Coming", in fact the Apostle Paul tells us that even creation itself is waiting for its redemption when all things are made new. 
But it's not an aimless waiting.
Jesus told a parable about some bridesmaids who were waiting for the bridegroom to turn up for a wedding feast. Half of the bridesmaids were "on the case" and alert, half weren't. The alert ones stayed awake, kept their lanterns burning and were ready when the bridegroom arrived; the foolish ones went to sleep, their lanterns burnt out and they missed the celebration. "Be ready .... wait purposefully" was the point that Jesus was making.

So, as we wait for Jesus' return, let's be purposeful. Reading our Bibles, praying, learning from other Christians, telling others about Jesus, demonstrating God's love with practical acts of kindness - there's plenty for us to be doing and plenty that needs to be done.


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