Waiting for the Imminent

The Theme of this Week: Outdo one another in showing honor;  Love One Another with Mutual Affection.

Today's Unrelated Theme: The Second Coming.

Last night was cold. Leaving Loyola at half past nine, I quickly took off down Kenmore Avenue, hoping that the street lamps would not only keep me safe, but warm. I shivered under my Fall coat, wondering why on earth I was wearing a coat made for the 50's when it was clearly not about 22. My hands turned into icicles and I hoped the el magically would appear in front of me, so that I would not continue to freeze for the 2 more blocks to the train.

My frigid hands fumbled for my U-Pass inside my purse and I quickly slid my transit card into slot, hoping the speed of my transaction would increase the blood flow to my fingertips. I ran up the stairs, hoping the sound of a train pulling in was mine and I could ride in the moderately heated car back to campus to my bed with 5 layers of blankets.

Instead, I stood on the platform and waited. Emma had told me a story of the impatience of Chicagoans and the way they will literally walk out into the middle road to see if the bus is coming. Determined to not be like my peers, I stood under the heat lamp on the El, wondering if maybe it were just a light and not a heater because I was still freezing.

I waited. I stood. I wiggled. I waited.

I looked down the platform and assessed the number of people. Using some sort of skewed logic, I determined that train must be coming quickly. Its arrival was imminent.

And I waited. I stood. I danced to keep feeling in my toes, and I waited.

The train would be here soon. Its arrival was imminent and I prayed that I was right. I asked God to send the train soon, for my whole body yearned to ride it back to my home.

I waited. I stood. I begged God for the train. And I waited.

Then it came! It turned the corner into Granville station with the signature screech of the brakes. It pulled up in front of me, and the grin on my face alerted everyone of my exceeding joy over its appearance. I gleefully stepped on board, found a seat that looked moderately clean and even less comfortable and absorbed the warmth of the train.

As blood started returning to my brain, my thoughts moved from my extremities to God and I realized what I had done.

Most days, I don't pray for the Lord's Return. Truthfully, most days I don't even want it that much. Most days, I am pretty content with who I am and what I am doing and would feel terribly dissatisfied if God came before I graduated college, or finished my internship or got married. Most days, I want Christ's return figuratively, in the not so near future.

I had more faith and love for the imminent arrival of a train than I did for the imminent arrival of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:7 tells us to eagerly wait for the Lord's Return. Matthew 6:10 tells us to pray for God's kingdom to come.

Standing on an el platform late at night, my cry to God should be that he comes in glory at this moment. That he makes my salvation complete through his second coming — the third Easter. May I long for Christ with the concentration I await a train.

May I believe that Christ is imminent in as a true of a sense as I believe public transportation is.