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A reflection and prayer to start the day with Catherine De Souza, Senior Leader of City Church in Cardiff.

Good morning. Many of us find waiting difficult, whether it’s standing in queues or sitting in traffic; whether it’s waiting for results or waiting for an answer, waiting isn’t usually something we enjoy. And in fact we live in a society of quick fixes where fad diets are preferred over healthy eating plans and millions play the lottery hoping to become rich overnight.

If we want to see how much quick fixes are prized we need only look at how popular TV talent shows are and reality TV programmes. Our culture loves the ‘overnight success’ story – little work for maximum outcome. But this isn’t a completely new phenomenon.

Take The Beatles, whose ‘Let It Be’ album is now back in the Top 40 – they are supposedly one of Britain’s most famous ‘overnight successes’. They were often described as having ‘burst’ onto the scene, as if their fame and success happened all of a sudden. But it didn’t; they went through a number of names including: the Blackjacks, the Quarrymen, Johnny and the Moon Dogs, before they settled on The Beatles. They had other band members, including various drummers before finally settling on Ringo Starr. And they did hundreds of gigs in tiny venues, spending two years in Germany doing as many gigs as they could get bookings for. So they were an overnight success - that was years of hard work in the making!

When we look at timings in light of a lifetime, or even in light of eternity it can help us to get perspective. That even in the waiting we can know that God’s timing is perfect. He’s never too early or too late and even when we’re waiting for an answer to our prayers, we can know God’s presence with us in the waiting.

God, even though waiting can be hard, thank you that you are with us in our waiting. Help us to enlarge our perspective and to be confident that your timing is perfect. Amen.