Are we waiting in joyful hope, or just watching the clock? Patience is one of those virtues that are in short supply in a society in a hurry to get what it wants.

German writer and professional pessimist Franz Kafka wrote in his diary that impatience was at the root of every sin since the Garden of Eden. This insight—from a man who could vividly imagine waking up one morning as a cockroach—demonstrates Kafka’s supreme sense of anxiety at the heart of the human condition.

John, meanwhile, had been locked up in prison. When he got wind of what Jesus was doing, he sent his own disciples to ask, “Are you the One we’ve been expecting, or are we still waiting?”

"If you have nothing good to say about anybody, come sit next to me” is a delicious twist on an old proverb, attributed to Alice Roosevelt Longworth. It captures the delight inherent in one of humanity’s favorite pastimes—talking badly about others.

My husband and I sat across the desk from the surgeon who was to repair the hole in our 4-month-old daughter’s heart. The doctor explained in simple, unadorned speech the two-patch procedure his team would use.

Scripture tells us the coming of the Lord is at hand. To prepare for that coming, we ask for God's forgiveness.

Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea and what fills it resound; let the plains be joyful and all that is in them. Then let all the trees of the forest rejoice.