What Are We Waiting For? – December 28, 2003
During this year we commemorate 75 years of continuous broadcasting. Today’s message was written and presented by Richard L. Evans on October 12, 1947.
It sometimes seems that we live as if we wondered when life was going to begin. It isn’t always clear just what we are waiting for, but some of us sometimes persist in waiting so long that life slips by—finding us still waiting for something that has been going on all the time.
There are fathers waiting for a better time to become acquainted with their sons—perhaps until other obligations are less demanding. But one of these days these sons are going to be grown and gone, and the best years for knowing them, for enjoying them, for teaching, and for understanding them, may also be gone. There are mothers who at their earliest convenience sincerely intend to become closer to their daughters—who are going to be more companionable. But time passes, distance widens, and children grow up and away. There are old friends who are going to enjoy each other a little more—but the years move on. There are husbands and wives who are going to be more understanding, more considerate. But time alone does not draw people closer. There are men who are going to give up bad habits; there are people who are going to eat more wisely; there are those who are going to live within their means—sometime soon. There are those who are going to take more interest in their government, be more active in service and civic activities. But when?
There is no reason to doubt all such good intentions—but when in the world are we going to begin to live as if we understood that this is life? This is our time, our day, our generation. Heaven and the hereafter will have its own opportunities and
obligations. This is the life in which the work of this life is to be done. Today is as much a part of eternity as was any day a thousand years ago or as will be any day a thousand years hence. This is it—whether we are thrilled or disappointed, busy or bored! This is life—and it is passing. What are we waiting for? [In Lloyd D. Newell, comp., Messages from Music and the Spoken Word (2003), 60–61.]
Program #3880
© 1947 by the Richard L. Evans family. Used by permission