To wait open-endedly (Henri Nouwen)

  To wait open-endedly is an enormously radical attitude toward life.  It is trusting that something will happen to us that is far beyond our own imaginings.  It is giving up control over our future and letting God define our life.  It is living with the conviction that God molds us according to God’s love and not according to our fear.  The spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment, expecting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our own imagination or prediction.  That, indeed, is a very radical stance toward life in a world preoccupied with control.

--Henri Nouwen, The Path of Waiting

Image source:  Gaetano Gandolfi, Joseph’s Dream (c.1790), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_1:21#/media/File:'Joseph's_Dream',_painting_by_Gaetano_Gandolfi,_c._1790.jpg