Talking Joy With Holly Whitcomb - Seven Spiritual Gifts of Waiting

Holly Whitcomb, author of the book The Seven Spiritual Gifts of Waiting. Waiting is something we have ALL been asked to do these past eighteen months. “There may be no more provoking experience than being told, “Wait.” It stops any action we might take. We may feel powerless, unprotected. Someone else holds all the cards." In the intervening moments—or days or weeks or years—waiting beckons us to come to the well of humility, to drink deeply.

—The Talking Joy Podcast Interview with host Pam Rotelle Robertson


WAITING….

In America, waiting presents an enormous challenge. We are impatient, "fix-it" kinds of people -- and not all situations can be fixed. This book presents seven spiritual gifts that waiting can teach us: Patience, Loss of Control, Live in the Present, Compassion, Gratitude, Humility, and Trust in God. An excellent resource during times of waiting within the church year including Advent and Lent, the book includes spiritual exercises and reflection questions for personal or group use as well as a retreat design.

“There may be no more provoking experience than being told, “Wait.” 

It stops any action we might take. We may feel powerless, unprotected. Someone else holds all the cards. In the intervening moments—or days or weeks or years—waiting beckons us to come to the well of humility, to drink deeply. Those clarifying waters give us a chance to see ourselves clearly; to see both our flaws and our gifts, to accept both our failings and our goodness. Even the waiting itself becomes a lens through which we can assess ourselves honestly. 

SEVEN SPIRITUAL GIFTS OF WAITING

Our podcast conversation hopes to open the door to explore the hidden treasures of waiting—whether it’s ordinary waiting in traffic or crucial waiting for news. If we are going to continue to live, we are going to continue to wait.

The good news is that the discipline of waiting offers us seven spiritual gifts:

  1. Patience

  2. Loss of Control

  3. Living in the Present

  4. Compassion

  5. Gratitude

  6. Humility

  7. Trust in God

Purchase the Book Here!

 

Other books written by Holly W. Whitcomb:

1. Feasting with God

2. The Bible and Spiritual Disciplines

3. Practicing Your Path

4. The Practice of Finding

HOLLY’S FAVORITE QUOTE:

“Waiting is a necessary ingredient to a life of quality.” ~ Gertrude Nelson 

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”  ~ Oscar Wilde

HOLLY’S SPECIAL PRAYER:

“Thy love be done.”