Last week I was down in the Chicago area because my mom was having surgery and I wanted to be there to help out and cheer her on.
Her last words as she was going in were “Isn’t he CUTE??” with a gleam in her eye as she pointed to her doctor. Her first words out of surgery were “How does my hair look?” Her doctor warned her not to sell her leftover Oxycodone on the street corner.
She’s scrappy and has a remarkable spirit and my dad is devoted and I wasn’t really needed, but it made me feel better to be there.
On the day of her surgery my dad and I spent pretty much all day in the waiting room. I’m not a good wait-er. At all. As a wait-er
You’re not in control (When are you ever, really? But it feels worse when you’re waiting).
It feels like you can’t DO anything constructive.
It feels like everyone else is going on with their life and you’re on hold.
Most of us are waiting for something.
I have friends who are waiting for a husband. Or a wife.
Friends who are waiting for a prodigal to return.
For an acceptance letter. Or a baby.
Waiting for a diagnosis. Or a cure.
Waiting for a job. Or someone to need them. Or a place where they feel like they’d be missed if they were gone.
Recently, I heard Holly Furtick speak on waiting, and something she said has been rolling around in my brain ever since.
She said, “What seems like a pointless or painful waiting room can be God’s most productive workroom.”
I thought “Aha!! I love being productive! She’s going to talk about what we can DO to CHANGE things and get out of the waiting room!” Not so much.
The work that we do while waiting is most often soul work. Inside stuff that requires patience (Does anyone like that word?), obedience, discernment and cooperation with God.
In the waiting room of the hospital where Dad and I were they had this nifty flat screen and on it were listed all the patients in surgery for the day. It tracked their progress, from pre-op, to surgery, to recovery room, to permanent room. In addition, if the surgery was long, they’d send word out with a nurse as to how it was going.
When I’m waiting I could really use a spiritual progress monitor showing exactly how I’m doing and when it’s all gonna be over.
But instead of even enduring in the comfortable, clean lounge of a hospital, waiting often seems a lot more like we’re survivors of the Titanic, clinging to God among the wreckage in cold, dark water. Disoriented and desperate to do something.
Every once in awhile we’ll flail our arms and try to swim to shore deluded into thinking we can swim the hundreds of miles on our own. But we realize we can’t and we go back to clinging.
Clinging is the work of the waiting room.
We cling and we say “Lord, help me to see you. Somehow. Today. Even for a second. Help me to focus on Your purpose rather than my problem.”
And slowly, ever so slowly, the wait results in just a little bit more of the weight of His glory being formed in us. Maybe the moment when we get the job or the baby or the whatever, isn’t the big deal, but rather the thousands of moments you choose courage and hope as you cling to the One who loves you.
One more thing…With my dad in the waiting room, it was easier because we had the company of each other. So, today, if you’re waiting and you’re reading this, know that you’re not alone.
What’s your experience of waiting?
I was recently given a book referral from a friend who has a very different life perspective. I hold this friend in high respect, so as a result, I bought the book, although internally, I was dreading the conversation that I believed would follow reading it, sounding something like, “Thank you for the recommendation, however I am not really into self-help / New Age thinking… ”
I love how God humbles us in our silly assumptive moments!
This book has turned out to be one of the most spiritually grounded (rooted in quotes of the traditional Christian thinkers) and most profound, life changing books. It is ALL ABOUT waiting. It is where I am in life, and remind myself daily, and sometimes moment by moment, how God has called me to wait. Not fun. But necessary in order for me to even begin to resemble the person He has created me to be.
My favorite reference in the book (paraphrased) is that as this woman struggled to sit still an wait, even for a few moments, she passed by a monk who was peacefully, resting against a tree in complete stillness. When she later had the chance to ask the monk how he could possibly sit still and “do nothing”, he looked her in the eyes, and said something to the effect of, “Ah… see that is where you have mistakenly bought into ths culture that says ‘when we wait, that nothing is happening’, when in fact, it is when we wait, that God is able to do nHis greatest ‘something”.
The book is “When The Heart Waits”, by Sue Monk Kidd.
Yes, she’s an author I feel like I need to read carefully, but that’s a good book! Thanks so much for sharing that great example!
I agree. Toward the end of the book, I felt like, had the first part of the book been so well documented, I would have been confused on her perspective.
Hit me square again, Laura. Waiting with my homeless, single-mother niece for a place she can call home. *sigh*
So, so hard. So glad she has you waiting with her!
Another book that really spoke to me on this subject is “Waiting” by Ben Patterson.
Yes! That’s my favorite book on waiting! I should go back and re-read it…it’s been awhile!