Wait: Thoughts and Practice in Waiting on God Bible Study and Discussion Guide

By Rebecca Brewster Stevenson

Study and Discussion Guide for the book Wait.

What are you waiting for?

Everyone has endured the endless traffic light, the queue that goes nowhere, the elevator music piped through the phone line. But what of those periods in your life when everything seems on hold? When you can't do the next thing in your professional or personal life because you can't get to it?

Waiting—be it for health, a life partner, a child, a job—can be an agony. The persistently unrealized goal feels like an endless road. And hope's constant deferment can be exhausting. A firm answer against the thing you're hoping for—"no"—might be easier than this constant lack of closure. It might be easier to give it up.

But what if waiting means to be something else? Waiting doesn't have to mean idleness. Our prolonged state of need might teach us to look beyond the desired goal to something infinitely better. We find lessons on this throughout the Bible and, if we are paying attention, in our own lives.

Rather than fostering frustration, periods of waiting might have great truths to tell us. It might show us that hope is worthwhile. Waiting might even be a gift in and of itself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Light Messages Publishing
• Release date: Jun 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9781611533033

Rebecca Brewster Stevenson

Rebecca Brewster Stevenson is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has a master's degree from Duke University and has lived in Durham, North Carolina for over 20 years with her husband and three children. Before dedicating herself to writing full time, Rebecca worked with Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill to develop the curriculum for their humanities department; she also worked as an English teacher at public and private middle and high schools in Durham and Pittsburgh. Rebecca's debut novel Healing Maddie Brees was published in 2016 to literary acclaim. Her beautifully crafted personal essays on her blog "Small Hours" have earned her a strong audience of readers who enjoy her explorations of themes relating to family, marriage, faith, writing, language, literature, and film. "Rebecca Brewster Stevenson's writing is consistently powerful, complex, honest, and hopeful" (Andy Crouch, author, Culture Making and The Tech-Wise Family). Rebecca's writing has also been called "exquisite" (Stephen Chbosky), "thought-provoking" (Barbara Claypole White), and "gorgeous" (Kirkus Reviews). To connect with Rebecca, visit her at rebeccabrewsterstevenson.com or follow her on Instagram @rebecca_stevenson17.

Book preview

Author

Introduction

Questions for Thought and Discussion

How does control—or a lack thereof—relate to your experience of waiting? If you were in control, how would your wait end?

While in Japan, my family was somewhat limited because we didn’t own a car, and this brought challenges. How does the lack of control in what you are waiting for seem to hinder you, your plans, or your relationships?

We also see that not owning a car brought some gifts to my family. Can you see any ways in which a lack of control brought about by your waiting brings some unexpected