I read recently of a survey taken by a doctor who polled 3,000 people and asked them this simple question: "What are you living for?" The survey revealed that over 90 percent of the people were WAITING for something significant to change or happen in their lives and in the lives of those with whom they were involved. Let me share a few examples:

A. A middle-aged couple was waiting for their parents to die before they went on to the next stage of their lives.

B. Another couple was waiting for their children to get married.

C. A younger couple was waiting to have a child.

D. A younger child said he was waiting for the day when his Dad no longer had to sleep on the couch and could sleep in the bedroom. Maybe his Dad would be in a better mood.

A character in T. S. Eliot's play, "The Elder Statesman," shares this insight on waiting: "If I had the energy to work myself to death how gladly would I face death! However, waiting, simple waiting with no desire to act, yet a loathing of inaction. It is like sitting in an empty waiting room in a railroad station on a branch line after the last train, after all the other passengers have left, and the booking office is closed and the porters have gone."