Pastoral Letter: What We Do While We Wait

Dear SUM Family,

Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ.

One of the books I used to read to our children is Waiting Is Not Easy! I sometimes mention it during Advent because its title says something true: waiting is not easy. Whether we are waiting for something joyful, important, or simply unavoidable, waiting can wear on the heart.

As I write this letter, I am praying for my wife and children to return home safely and in good health. I am waiting for our family to be together again. In a sense, that waiting began when I left for the United States after my wife had come to see me off. By the time you read this, I hope that, by God’s grace, our family will have been reunited and will be finding our way through the ordinary work of settling in and preparing for what comes next. We may also be learning again how to live with the effects of jet lag.

This personal waiting has led me to other questions. What is our church waiting for? What kinds of waiting are present among the people of SUM? And then a more surprising question: What might God be waiting for in us?

Have you ever imagined that God might be waiting for us? Not as someone standing at a distance until we become perfect, but as the One who patiently waits for us to turn our hearts toward God, extend our hands toward our neighbors, practice love, and receive the gift of today faithfully.

Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a person who scatters seed on the ground. The person sleeps and rises, night and day, while the seed sprouts and grows in ways the person does not understand. In time, the earth brings forth the stalk, the head, and the full grain (Mark 4:26–29).

What stays with me in this parable is that the farmer is not doing nothing. The farmer sows the seed. Yet the farmer does not force the seed to grow faster. Growth is taking place beyond the farmer’s control and even beyond the farmer’s understanding. The farmer can faithfully sow and then trust what cannot be forced, remaining ready when the time for harvest comes.

Perhaps this is one of the mysteries of waiting. God may patiently wait for our faithful response, even as we learn to wait for growth that we ourselves cannot produce.

Waiting, then, is not the same as doing nothing.

We wait for healing while caring for our bodies. We wait for a relationship to change while choosing to listen honestly. We wait for children to begin a new school year while encouraging them. We wait for the church’s next steps while praying together and paying attention to one another’s stories. We cannot make every outcome happen, but we can plant the small seeds entrusted to us today.

As the heat of summer slowly gives way, we look forward to cooler mornings and evenings, the changing of the natural world, and the beginning of a new school year. I also hope that our life together at SUM will continue to deepen—not simply by becoming busier, but as we come to know one another more fully, grow in trust, and discover more faithfully how God is calling us to love and serve together.

This is not passive hope. Sometimes it begins with something very small: learning a name, asking how someone is doing, praying, listening carefully, or making room for someone beside us.

What are you waiting for these days?

You may be carrying a prayer whose answer is not yet clear, or a hope that makes your heart restless. God does not dismiss that waiting. Bring it honestly before God. And as you wait, consider what small seed has been entrusted to you today.

We may not see yet what will come from it. We may not even understand how it is growing.

But God is at work even in ways we cannot yet see.

So while we wait, may we keep sowing the seeds of love, prayer, grace, and faithful presence that God has placed in our hands today.

Grace and peace,

Pastor DH
Simsbury United Methodist Church
sumct.org | pastordh@sumct.org