In the Waiting Room

Have you spent any time in a waiting room lately?  Perhaps at the doctor's office or the dentist's office.  Perhaps in a hospital, waiting while someone you know is having tests or surgery.  Perhaps in some other type of office. 

Waiting rooms are interesting places for people watching.  Waiting rooms are proof that people come in all shapes and sizes.  Tall and short.  Round.  Or not.  Blonde hair.  Gray hair.  Red hair.  Brown hair. 

Waiting rooms are also proof that people come with all sorts of temperaments.  You discover this as you observe how they handle their time waiting.  There are patient people.  These typically read or chat with a friend, occasionally perhaps glancing at their watches to check the time.  The not-so-patient ones are always in motion, often loudly bemoaning how long this is taking or wondering why they have to wait in the first place. 

Recently I even saw a young man taking a nap in the waiting room!  And by young man, I mean someone in his twenties.  There he was, curled up on the waiting room couch, with his jacket rolled up like a pillow under his head  Apparently he was expecting to be there a long time!

Waiting is a fact of life.  In the doctor's office.  At the traffic light.  In line at the supermarket or the post office.  We could make quite a long list of places where we spend time waiting.

But waiting is not confined to a particular room or to a line in the store or to a traffic pattern.  In many other ways, waiting is part of the fabric of life.

We wait for the cake to come out of the oven.  We wait for news that the baby has been born.  We wait for the check to come in the mail.  We wait for news about this or that or the other thing.  We wait for answers to our prayers. 

We wait. And like the people in the doctor's office, we are often impatient in the waiting.  That may be a fault of a culture that is accustomed to instant everything.  It may be a fact of our temperament, in that some of us are just wired to be more patient than others of us.

What's the point of all this waiting anyway?  Perhaps one of the reasons we have so much waiting to do is to reinforce the truth that God is in charge.  That He is God and we are not.  To teach us to trust His timing and His ways and His character and His purposes.

Waiting reminds us that in all things, God is at work causing all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.  (Romans 8:28).

Waiting reminds us that God is in control.  That He is sovereign and His ways are best.

Waiting teaches us to trust Him.

That's an important thing to remember today.  Whether you're waiting for medical news.  Or you're waiting for a financial need to be met.  Or you're waiting for a house to sell.  Or you're waiting for answers to some other question or need in your life.

Time in the waiting room is not wasted time.  It's learning time.  Learning patience.  Learning that God's ways are best.  Learning to trust Him.

If you're in a waiting room today in your life, as I am, I'm praying for you.  Praying that we all might learn the lessons God has for us.  Praying that we will know that He can be trusted.  Praying we will learn what that really means.  Praying that in this time of waiting, we will get to know our God better.  Praying we will recognize the answers when they come. 

Above all, praying that through the waiting process we would be learning and growing and becoming all that He desires us to be.  That we would see the waiting as not so much about the answer as it about the process.  The process of growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity.  Amen.  (2 Peter 3:18 NASB)


"Teach me Your way, O LORD, and lead me in a level path."  (Psalm 27:11 NASB)

"Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the LORD."  (Psalm 27:14 NASB)