Coming towards the end of a four year period as Church of Scotland Mission Partner in Israel/Palestine which had not gone as expected or hoped for, I returned to Scotland at the end of the ten day Israel/Iran War in June 2025.
I was weary and unsettled. I was frustrated and angry. I felt so helpless in the face of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza and the rising tide of settler violence, house demolitions and violations of human rights; and the complicity of the global north in genocide. I did not feel I could carry on. I also felt guilty because my own circumstances did not remotely compare with the dehumanisation, violence and humiliation faced by Palestinians and Arab Israelis daily.
I was waiting for a path, a direction to open up. But I felt I was done with Israel. I never wanted to go there again.
A few weeks passed, and as I relaxed and slept better and reflected with friends and a counsellor, my feelings changed. For the sake of a good ending, it seemed important to go back and say a proper goodbye. And so I did.
And when I met Palestinians and Arab Israelis, and brave Israeli friends, hopeful that a fragile cease fire might begin and aid might flow to Gaza, even as they feared it would not, I saw in them waiting as resistance, as refusal to accept the way things are, as what Dorothee Soellë called ‘revolutionary patience’. The waiting was not passive, but active, requiring faith and hope and courage.
And I was reminded of that revolutionary teenager, pregnant and waiting for the promise to be fulfilled that she should mother God’s Son, and I thought of the baby in the womb of Elizabeth her cousin, leaping to greet Him. My prayer this Advent is that I, and you, might grow revolutionary patience and be ready to welcome the Prince of Peace when he comes.
Share your thoughts
Take a moment to consider what surfaced for you as you read through Muriel’s reflections. If you would like to share some of those reflections and thoughts in response, please comment below.
Thank you Muriel, I have followed your blogs for some time and appreciate your witness, you have opened my eyes and by sharing your wisdom with others the ripples continue. Patience, waiting and rest as acts of resistance have really got me thinking, I cannot explain just how timely these messages have been to me this week, I’m so glad I found Go Health at Greenbelt this year.
Thank you Heather, I will make sure this message is passed on to Muriel
This is deeply moving, thank you
I’m mindful of the similarly worded philosophy of Tent of Nations, southwest of Bethlehem… “In the face of injustice, we refuse to be enemies.” Sitting in my warm comfort here, I stand in prayer & solidarity, asking myself where I am ‘acting’. 🙏🏻
Thank you for this reflection from someone who has been there. Sharing her anger and frustration that the exclusion and treatment of palestinians we experienced in the Holy Land on our pilgrimage 7 years ago is so much worse. We prayed for the peace of Jerusalem on that visit and we still pray for peace in the Holy Land.
All these blogs are making me cry. But good tears.
Thank you, Muriel, for your Advent message, the context, your lived experience, your honesty, your insight and assessment.
Patience for me is the supreme virtue, encapsulating and requiring faith, hope and love.
Faith to believe situations can be changed, and people can be changed, and we can be too; maybe not yet, but we keep hoping, and being positive, and caring; love, which is redemptive for us, and for everyone else, and for the world.
God is patient with us, and sometimes vice versa. We wait.
I would think John the Baptist might be an example of active waiting.
A beautiful reflection on hope- bless you.
Thank you Muriel, for your heart felt, heart led, heart ache sharing.
Revolutionary Patience – a new term for me.
In the last few months circumstances have meant me stepping back from toxic situation in public duty, whereby I felt my love for God was being marred by the dark and negative situation. I now wait for the next chapter – with patience and grateful thanks to the God who rescues us and gives us renewed strength and courage.
Thanks for Janet. Continued prayers for your next chapter