God’s Waiting Room

Are you in a waiting room right now? Perhaps you sit beside a loved one in anticipation of the results of an exam or the completion of a test or surgery, or maybe you wait for the doctor’s nurse to call your name to check out a disturbing symptom or other physical concern. You feel that loss of control, the helplessness that comes from not knowing and being unable to hurry things along. Well, I can relate!

For the past several months as we have been getting closer to having Gary qualified for the liver transplant list, there have been several lengthy times of waiting we have had to endure. Sometimes we’ve been here at home waiting on the phone to ring. Others we have been at a hospital waiting for the doctor to come tell us news. Let me tell you, this particular aspect of the whole transplant process I am not crazy about!

Last week while once more doing this, my least favorite thing, it dawned on me that we all spend time in waiting rooms of various sorts from time to time. Moving from one event in life to another, God requires many periods of waiting. He seldom hands us an answer on a silver platter, for instance, with all the loose ends neatly tied up in pretty bows, all perfect and attractive. Mine are usually disheveled and smudged, evidence of the normal hassles of life. Why can’t they look like those out of Southern Living? The “plate” is most often a hard wooden or plastic seat in a place where whiffs of various odors waft through unbidden. Why do they constantly assault my senses like they do?

At those moments we are inactive, forced to sit still while others are busy working presumably on our behalf, we can do nothing else. They will get to us when they can but meantime, we are perched on the edges of those seats wondering if the news will be good or bad or somewhere in between. Ours lately have not been particularly good, but I’m also keenly aware how much worse they could be, and I take whatever crumbs I can gather and paste a smile on my face and determine to give God the glory. I’m not being false or hypocritical here, just honest. We are called to hope, not to blindness or being brain dead! I can honor Him even when my heart is breaking.

As an author I also find myself waiting. Recently I submitted a Proposal to a prospective literary agent and sure enough, then I had to—wait! For twelve long, agonizing weeks. Without knowing a thing about its status. Wondering if she liked the story or was impressed by my marketing plan or repelled by my lack of experience in the publishing field. It was her prerogative to meet my implied questions with silence, and that is what she chose to do. I may never know why she rejected the Proposal and thus the manuscript. How can I improve if I don’t know what was wrong? I knew the risks when I sent it in but when that date passed without any word, I have to admit it still hurt. For a writer, this situation is replicated many times over and can feed your paranoia if you don’t know how to trust in God’s goodness. So I plow ahead, prepare the manuscript for yet another agent, and have faith in the Lord’s ultimate plan for the story to be told . . . someday!

After all, isn’t that the point? God requires us to trust Him. That means not knowing yet remaining confident He has everything under control. Whether it is a medical test result, news about a job interview, reply from a publisher, or a phone call from an estranged loved one, we all must wait from time to time. And trust. And believe. Hebrews 1:11 defines faith as “. . . being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” In other words, it’s not faith if we know ahead of time what’s going to happen! It takes time to develop friendships and it takes time to grow in maturity and knowledge. These waiting rooms are hard to go through but well worth the effort. For as we wait patiently, God is growing us in dependence on Him rather than on our own efforts. He hears our prayers and will act; we just have to take courage and have faith in His timing.

So as you sit in your waiting rooms this week, ponder what a blessing we possess in belonging to a God whose sovereignty trumps all ignorance or disaster!