God’s Waiting Room

It seems like cold and flu season this year has been off the charts.  So many people are sick and it’s almost to the point we are afraid to go out among the masses lest we fall ill as well.

Don’t you just dread going to the doctor?  I mean there are several reasons you hate to go, but having to wait forever seems to make the trip worse.

I usually end up taking my favorite magazine or a book I’m in the middle of reading and try to pass the time away.  Most of the doctors’ offices now have televisions as they know you are going to be bored and try to keep you entertained while you have to wait.

Unfortunately, that is very much what life is like for some of us when we are waiting for an answer from God.  Sometimes the answer we seek comes quickly and we are in and out in a jiffy.  But other times it seems like we have set up a temporary home in God’s waiting room.

The Israelites waited for 40 years in the desert.  I’m not sure we would make it that long; some of them didn’t.  Most of them gave up and turned away from the God of their fathers.  They had been captives for so many generations, that living in slavery seemed better than dying in the desert.

What we do with our time while we are waiting in our own desert is probably more important than what we are waiting for.  We can sit over in the corner, pull our knees up to our chins and cry our little eyes out just waiting for our name to be called. Waiting for our answer to come.

We can read our books on “The 7 Steps to Waiting” and fill our minds with the television shows flashing before us to pass the time.  Or we can sit quietly and listen to what is going on around us. We can call out to God, open our hearts and listen to what He says.

Yes, people, I talk to God and He in turn talks to me.

Psalm 107 begins by saying “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever.”  Four times the Psalmist goes on to say,  “then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress” (vs.6,13,19,28).  And three times he declares “let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!” (vs.8, 15, 21).

I have had my share of waiting as so many others have.  Some may still be waiting to get answers. Often we feel that they never come.  We, like David, feel forgotten, rejected, downtrodden and alone. It is then that we need to ask ourself, have we listened to what the Great Physician has told us?  Are we taking the prescription He has written for us?

I’ve been in that corner crying my eyes out thinking that my time will never come.  I have sat and read all the books to try and relieve the pain of waiting or worse, zone out so that maybe the pain would go away.  But I know for certain that the best times have been the times when I have either quietly listened for Him to call my name whether in the scripture I read, or those around me who have taken the time to listen and to share the comfort of His love and kindness.

We are human and will stumble during our journeys through the desert.   But the more we practice spending time trusting in God’s steadfast love, praising Him because He has dealt bountifully with us, the easier the wait becomes.

LORD, I wait for you; you will answer, Lord my God.  Psalm 38:15