Each day during Advent, we will post some sort of reflection having to do with waiting, anticipation, hope. Each one will be different, each one a chance to pause and take a breath during this busy season. Past posts are archived here.
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Waiting can feel uncomfortable and awkward, but waiting can also be freeing and defining.
It was August 2005 as Hurricane Katrina was approaching New Orleans, I decided to wait. Having left home year-after-year in the wake of approaching storms, this year although I didn’t see it as different, was different from the very beginning, as I look in retrospect.
Thursday, August 25, 2005, I left work for the weekend. All appeared normal. I told my staff to have a good weekend and I would see them on Monday. Then as Saturday was coming to an end, it looked like I would need to pack and head out of town. Although the weather was tethering, from my perspective, between the need to leave and the desire to wait it out, I opted to wait. Normally, I was off and ready to head out of town. It had become sort of our annual mini-vacation, always choosing some place we had never been before. But this year, the need to leave was thwarted by the desire to wait. I didn’t know why I was waiting, but I believed I needed to wait. I now see I needed to wait so I would allow God to choose my path because that path would lead me to a whole new world.
Friends were leaving on Saturday, but I waited. For some it seemed like an uncomfortable and awkward thing to do. For some in my life, they felt it was not a wise thing to do, but I still waited.
I went to bed on Saturday night, with peace in my decision to wait, but about midnight, the waiting ended. God woke me up and instructed me on what my next steps should be. I am so grateful I waited and I listened.
Hurricane Katrina did come and my home and possessions were literally washed away, but in that brokenness, I was restored, I was redeemed, I was made whole, with a brand new purpose, My life will forever be defined by the waiting and the freeing that came along with the waiting and the definition of a new purpose that resulted from the wait.
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Today’s post is by Barbara Scorza, a New Orleans native, living in North Little Rock, Post-Katrina with her son, Kenderick and grandchildren, Josh, Aurbrey and KJ.
I have been attending FN since 2006 and a member of the staff since 2007. I was invited to FN by Sandra Clary several times, but accepted the invitation to attend on January 15, 2006. Craig spoke that Sunday about racial unity and I knew from that moment that this is where God wanted me. In my short time here, I have experienced some bumps and bruises in my personal life, but this church has been my family and I am grateful God chose them for me.
You can find Barbara on Facebook, Twitter, or on her blog, barbarascorza.com.