Anticipation

By George Davis in All Sorts

on the values of waiting for and waiting on

Anticipation.
Tempus fugit. Time flies, they say. Ah no. Time stays, we go.
This anonymous and darkly epigrammatic verse used to be frequently read to pupils of The Taieri High School by its first principal, Thomas G Hislop. He was not one to waste time or words and this piece was used to urge us into constructive action. Indeed, waiting for something to occur was just not his thing.
However, I thought that there seems to be much waiting to be found in the Bible, which broadly seems to be divided between 'waiting for' and 'waiting on (or upon)' and there appeared an important distinction between these two. 'Waiting for' seems passive and bears itself quietly, and patiently; whereas "waiting on" appears much more active. The latter has overtones of what waiters do - they wait upon their clients, tending to their needs. Their role is active, and purposeful. But is one more important than the other?
The history of the world and indeed our present time has many who wait for all sorts of things. Parents wait for children to grow up (why? to become like them?), gardeners wait for plants to grow, we wait for appointments to come round, some religions wait for sunrise or sunset, and more than one group waits for the Second Coming. But what profits us in all this waiting? One problem lies in New Testament stories surrounding Christ such as the Martha - Mary episode where Mary was praised for waiting while Martha worked at household chores.
On the other hand, Christ's life was mostly active from what we can tell in the fleeting episodes given in the New Testament. Does that mean that today, in this present scientific and much more comfortable environment that we should seek to be similarly active?
It depends how you see your life and how it fits into the great scheme of things. Once you have worked that out you will know whether to be 'waiting for' or 'waiting on'.
And as the young say today, "What are you waiting for?"
George Davis