God's Waiting Room

Yesterday's discussion during our Women's Book Study was very fruitful. The topic was impatience and irritability. We particularly had lots of 'true confessions' about the part of life that causes us to be the most impatient: waiting. Waiting at a doctor's appointment, in traffic, at the store, for a phone call, etc. We all agreed that these situations really do test our patience.

But all of these are, at best, just trivial examples of waiting. What if we are waiting for the results of a very serious medical exam? for a prodigal child/spouse/parent to come home? for justice to be served? for our heartache to go away?

One good answer to these questions comes from Psalm 27:

"Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!"

But how are we to take courage while we wait? Paul Tripp has some suggestions:

"Waiting on God isn't about the suspension of meaning and purpose. It's part of the meaning and purpose that God has brought into my life. Waiting on God isn't to be viewed as an obstruction in the way of the plan. Waiting is an essential part of the plan. For the child of God, waiting isn't simply about what the child will receive at the end of his wait. No, waiting is much more purposeful, efficient, and practical. Waiting is fundamentally about what we will become as we wait. God is using the wait to do in and through me exactly what he has promised. Through the wait he is changing me. By means of the wait he is altering the fabric of my thoughts and desires. Through the wait he is causing me to see and experience new things about him and his kingdom. And all of this sharpens me, enabling me to be a more useful tool in his redemptive hands." (A Shelter in the Time of Storm: Meditations on God and Trouble)

This greater perspective that Tripp presents will certainly reduce our impatience if we will only embrace it. Let's try to bring it to mind the next time we are called, in some significant way, to sit in God's waiting room. It certainly will be much better for us than watching the clock.