Tell about a time when you experienced patience or a fruitful waiting time in your life. Was someone patient with you or did you offer a patience that surprised you? What does that experience of patience tell you about the character of God? 

I have never been good at waiting. I’ve been told I was an impatient baby, who grew into an impatient child and eventually an impatient adult. I’m not sure if it was the Scottish work ethic or the Scottish traditional saying uttered by my mother, “Never say die! Up man, and try.“ This saying she said came from the lips of Robert the Bruce. While he waited in a cave after defeat in battle, he watched a spider remaking and remaking her spiderweb.

Not one to get inspiration from a spider, but more about pride in my Scottish heritage, I felt that it was my duty, not to sit patiently and wait, but to get on with the job, anybody’s job. And that, as you can imagine, landed me in all sorts of uncomfortable situations. And even when I didn’t act on my impulses, and was praying “Lord, please give me patience,” it took everything in my being to sit on my hands, and not jump up and wrestle the microphone from the person chairing a meeting so we could just ‘get on with it.’

So, three years ago when I was asked to be on the Search Committee to find our new rector, I stepped up with unbridled enthusiasm. Here’s a challenge; let’s get on with this! What a remarkable and humbling learning God gave me. I knew in my heart God was with us, but He didn’t really acknowledge the spreadsheet and timeline that was so meticulously laid out. Nor did God give the green light to move forward when we thought we had the perfect candidate. It was eerily quiet, a little dark, and a bit lonely. Then one day a wise soul said to me, “Gosh this is taking a long time. Just imagine what God has in store for you!” They weren’t teasing or being mean, they actually wanted me to stop and imagine. And so I listened. The phrase “in my time” kept repeating in my ear.