Waiting

Both the Old and the New Testaments describe our existence in relation to God as one of waiting, The condition of our relation to God is first of all one of not having, not seeing, not knowing, and not grasping.  A religion in which that is forgotten, no matter how ecstatic or active or reasonable, replaces God by its own creation of an image of God.  I am convinced that much of the rebellion against Christianity is due to the overt or veiled claim of the Christians to possess God, and therefore, also, to the loss of this element of waiting, so decisive for the prophets and the apostles.  They did not possess God; they waited for Him.  For how can God be possessed?  Is God a thing that can be grasped and known among other things?  Is God less than a human person?  Since God is infinitely hidden, free, and incalculable, we must wait for Him in the most absolute and  radical way.  He is God for us just in so far as we do not possess Him.  We are stronger when we wait than when we possess.  When we possess God, we reduce God to that small thing we knew and grasped of God; and we make it an idol.  

                     Paul Tillich, The Shaking of the Foundations