WAITING:
TWENTY QUESTIONS

THE following are twenty questions for the next time you are looking for something to do while you are waiting.

1) Can women wait better than men? Babies take nine month to be born: planting the seed is much quicker.

2) Are farmers more patient than city folks? Do they find it easier to wait at banks and loan agencies? Waiting for seeds to grow and bud takes time, but so too does waiting for subways, buses, traffic, etc.

3) Is this generation more impatient than earlier generations? Do instant cereal, instant coffee, instant replay, microwave ovens, cable TV, video movies, instant copy machines, instant read-outs from computers, prevent people from learning how to wait?

4) Do couples without children miss out by not waiting up at night with a sick child, waiting for kids to grow, waiting for kids to come home safely from camp or the movies?

5) If you are or if you were a waiter or a waitress in a restaurant what would be the three most important things you would do to give good service to your customers?

6) If you broke your leg and had to sit around healing from four to six weeks, what would do with your time? Would it be a joyful break (pardon the pun) or would you “go bananas,” not knowing what to do with your time?

7) Still in the broken leg situation, what five books are you looking for time to read?

8) You are sitting waiting in a doctor’s waiting room and in walk the following three people: a teen-age girl on crutches, her foot in a cast; a woman who seems to be seven months pregnant; and a old lady in her seventies. Which of the three would you most likely give your seat to?

9) Or you’re in the same waiting room, but this time standing with those three people. Seated is an eighteen-year old boy, obviously into body building. Would you suggest to him that he offer his seat to one of the three persons?

10) Do you usually keep people waiting? Or are you usually on time? If you’re often late, do you do it to all people in all kinds of situations or is it usually to one person or one situation?

11) Do you answer mail or phone calls immediately, or are you a procrastinator, putting people off for hours, days and weeks?

12) When you pray, do you get restless? What’s your patience level? Do you get restless after ten, twenty, forty, or sixty minutes? What are your feelings about Jesus’ words, “Could you not watch with me for one hour?”

13) Why did Jesus wait till he was around thirty before he started moving around as a preacher?

14) Why did Jesus curse the fig tree in Matthew and not give it a second chance, while in Luke he gives it another year? Which is the real Jesus: the Jesus of Matthew or Luke?

15) Is there someone who is waiting for you to say to them, “I’m sorry for hurting you?”

16) Is there somebody you’re waiting to come to you and prove that they are sorry for hurting you?

17) Do you cheat, when you can, on waiting in line, trying to get ahead of others, in restaurants, at the shopping center, etc.? Do you believe in the principle of “first come, first serve”?

18) If you had cancer, would you be able to deal with all the waiting that is often involved: waiting to take tests, for the test reports, for good news? Would you be able to deal with losing hair, strength, movement?

19) You are in a barbershop or the hair dresser’s. You walk in without an appointment. Four persons are ahead of you. Would you be the type that would sit and wait, or would you leave and come back another time?

20) Looking at your life, what are the three most important things you are waiting for?

MANTRA: “Lord, teach me to learn to wait for what’s worth waiting for.”

© Andrew Costello, Chapter 43 of Thank God It's Friday, 1987