Waiting for the lead!

I found this scene interesting and revealing.

During the pause before the soloist could begin, the guitarist who accompanied him was tuning his guitar to give the correct note for the singer to begin! 

During that time of couple of minutes, all in the stage and audience remained quiet in anticipation!

Once the soloist started to sing and the guitarist accompanied him, there was rapt attention and delightful tapping of the feet and swaying to the musical rhythm! Almost everyone got engrossed in the musical harmony!

While talking to someone yesterday, I realized how pauses or seasons of waiting have been rather difficult! The guitarist nods his head when he is ready and the soloist then takes it forward! That gives us a real life lesson ! 

Our lives can live the rhythm when we are tuned in to the lead we need to get moving! I have often wondered about this  synchronisation!

It is God who can give us that lead to integrate with the direction of the future! What makes that possible is to pause in silence and wait in hope for us to receive the inner nod to move on! 

Yesterday I had to unpack three boxes in which I had gathered together all my files in preparation for my retirement from the work I do on turning seventy years! As there was no other consultant in the department I was requested to continue for some more time! In the process of unpacking to put the files back in the filing cabinet, I travelled back in memory lane of thirty five years since I moved to the specialty of Developmental Neurology during which time there were several major changes in the direction of our calling! 

One change was when the invitation came from CMC Vellore to incorporate the ASHIRVAD Child Development Centre at Chennai with CMC to start the Developmental Paediatrics Unit. The invitation came in 1995 and it took two long years of pause before we decided to move to Vellore in 1997!

By then Anna and I were at Chennai for fifteen years with considerable acceptance and prospects for what we were engaged in. Now looking back, it was a call to relocate to CMC Vellore, for which we needed two years of emotional preparation! The unit of Developmental Paediatrics at CMC Vellore continues its leadership role in the speciality admirably under able leadership ! I retired in 2008.

Life is full of this form of in between times! It is peace and hope that would be the interior ambience of such in between times, when we are open to be led by a God who tunes our lives to harmonise us with His direction for our lives. 

The pause before the starting is significant and essential to live responsibly! Make that season of waiting to welcome surprises ahead!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)