Active Receptivity
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. -Colossians 4:2
I heard the phrase “Active Receptivity” in a sermon that Andrew preached in our church one Sunday morning. He was preaching about waiting on God, but once I scribbled down those two words in my notes, my mind drifted and I’m not sure that I heard anything after that.
This past year has had some particularly rough patches. My thoughts rested on a recent “conversation” I had with God on another Sunday morning before church. If I’m honest, it was more of a raging rant. Walking at a clipped pace through the woods behind our house, I cried out to God for help. Troubles were dogpiling me and my mama’s heart was breaking into a million pieces. I knew I needed to lay it all at God’s feet or I would lose my mind. Boy, He got an ear full. Finally, exhausted and out of words, I plopped down on one of my favorite benches to watch the sun rise over the Shenandoah Valley. “Okay God,” I sighed, “your turn.”
I didn’t want to think anymore. I just wanted my frantic mind to calm down. Deepening my breathing, my eyes wandered over the soft curves of patchwork hills fading gradually into the cobalt Appalachians that bounced across the horizon. As I settled into the morning quiet, a cool, gentle breeze began blowing my hair back. I’m generally cautious about reading too much into these things, but it felt to me like the Holy Spirit's consoling caress. Whether it was Him or just the whims of weather, I delighted in it as if it were Him. I closed my eyes and smiled. Then the comforting words of Proverbs 3 floated through my mind, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Yes, that’s exactly what I needed to hear right then. I kept repeating those words to myself over and over, trying to absorb them into my body like the rising sun’s rays.
That felt like receptivity. I gave my troubles to God, asking Him to take care of things that I couldn’t manage. I believed in that moment that “He’s got this.” I struggled with feeling irresponsible, but I determined to try waiting and trusting. I was out of options anyways.
But what of this “active receptivity”? Was there something I was supposed to be doing while I waited? I did hear Andrew say in his sermon that waiting itself can be quite active. It can be a constant struggle to make myself stop striving and know that He is God. It goes against all of my impulses. But what more?
The apostle Paul admonished the Colossians to, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving (4:2).” I discovered in this verse three important ways that we are meant to wait on God:
Show up.
Be alert.
Give thanks.
Simeon modeled this kind of active receptivity. The gospel of Luke recounts the story of Simeon, a pious Israelite who believed that God revealed to him that he would see Israel’s Messiah before he died. He was an old man. He could have just passively stayed home, waiting for the Messiah to show up at his door. But Luke wrote that he “came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God (2:27, 28).” Simeon stayed in connection with God, paying attention to where he was supposed to be, and showed up at the right time and in the right place to witness God’s gift. He kept his eyes peeled for God’s revelation and instantly recognized the child Jesus when he saw him. Then, with great joy, he scooped up the child and thanked God for keeping His promise to Israel saying “My own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people (Luke 2:32).” His eyes saw and celebrated what very few other eyes noticed.
If we continue to show up where God leads us, in watchful prayer, we will see God show up too. And He is going to bless our socks off. I believe that He is working all of the time and we just don’t see most of it because we are not looking. Instead, we are more like Peter who, after asking for and receiving an invitation from Jesus to get out of his boat and walk out to Him on the water, became so overwhelmed by the terrors of possibility that he failed to celebrate that he was indeed walking on water! Like Peter, we become distracted by the waves and miss the powerful presence of Jesus in front of us. If he could have kept his gaze on Jesus a few minutes more, Peter might have danced on water with Him in the middle of a storm. Jesus was totally game for it.
Those who wait actively and expectantly for extended periods nearly burst with exuberant thanksgiving when their hope at last finds fulfillment. Think of the delirious celebration of the faithful Chicago Cubs fans after waiting 108 long years to witness their “lovable losers” win a world series. Think of the joyful tears at the birth of a child after a long and painful labor; of the prodigal’s father's full-on sprint to meet the long-lost son who has finally come home; and of the faithful Simeon clasping the long-awaited infant Messiah to his chest. Joyful thanksgiving is the appropriate and desirable reward for a long, attentive hope.
Our capacity for that kind of celebration is maximized by our participation in watchful waiting, anticipating the gift that is sure to come. So let’s keep showing up — in prayer, in obedient trust, in hope. Be alert. And when God shows up as promised, by all means, let’s dance on the water and give thanks!
