The “Wait” Room

Waiting doesn’t fit today’s immediate-results world. Technology and time-saving gadgets have conditioned us to be impatient people. We rush from place to place, from appointment to appointment. We fidget when we find a line blocking us from our goal or when the stoplight is red for more than a couple of minutes or when the preacher goes on “too long” with his sermon.

Yet much of life is learning to wait. The dictionary defines waiting as a time of stillness with an attitude of readiness or expectancy. Some Bible versions translate waiting as “resting.”

God’s timetable cannot be rushed. He is not bound by time, nor does He run on man’s schedule. So He gives us warm-up exercises of short waits or delays in our schedules—a light that stays red longer than we think it should or lines at the bank, grocery store, or pharmacy—to prepare us for the more intense times of life, such as wait times in doctor’s offices and hospital testing rooms or beside a loved one’s deathbed. These are the times He calls us to rest in His time schedule, not anxious of the outcome, not striving for our own way, agenda, or deadline.

Take advantage of the “wait” training God has for you today. He will reward you with so much more when you do.