The Waiting Room

The post in my text box simply reads:
"Will be here all day."
That's it. Not a clue as to how it's going, or what they are doing, or what they are having him do. Just where he's going to be. And that it's not just this morning, but all day. ALL day.

Whether it's a doctor's office, or an airport terminal, waiting is really hard. But it's something we ALL have to do. Wait.
I somehow wish I had some Latin or Greek knowledge to pull out of a hat. I think it would read something like this:
"Wait, from the Greek waitvenourous, which means - at it's root - "to be ridiculed and made uncomfortable".
I'm only half joking.  (You can find out the REAL info on the word "wait" HERE)
We ARE sometimes uncomfortable and ridiculed while waiting....especially in doctor's offices with our hind-sides bared...
Thankfully THIS is not THAT uncomfortable for me.
:)

I'm sitting in an air-conditioned hotel room. I have 1/2 an hour until a new friend picks me up for lunch, and whatever else she wants to do on her day off.

Mark's at the corporate office for work, in meetings. We thought it was just this morning, but it's going to be an all day deal. That's ok. Once I'm back here - whatever time that is - I've got my laptop and some quilting to do. I might even read ahead in the book "One Thousand Gifts" that Mark and I are reading "together" (I put that in quotes, since I started reading it out loud, and he promptly fell asleep!). I could listen to another GREAT sermon by Francis Chan (I listened to this one this morning already ) or watch a movie on tv. LOTS of options for today's waiting room challenge.

I remember other times I've had to wait. Biopsy results, babies being born, and bumper to bumper traffic are all some of my LEAST favorite, even though the end results are always a lesson to walk through God with, and are usually not nearly as difficult to deal with as I make those monsters out to be. I just like things to be going at a reasonable pace in forward motion, and I really don't like surprises (really, not even good ones!), so it's hard to be standing still.

I think that God growing me in PRAYER has helped me become more comfortable in waiting room situations. It's ok to be still. To wait on God. To not spout words that don't need to be said, just to hear the sound of my voice. I really have come to love the quiet there, in my prayer time.

Even when I pray with my dear friend and missionary care mentor, Lori, we have learned to say "silence is ok". Others may not know how to take that, but when it's just she and I (and God), I think that it's when we feel Him closest. In the quiet. He IS.

So today, while I want to be out and about and enjoying this summer day, I'll be sure to take a few minutes (or an hour?) to pause and pray. Not just for my life, but for others, whose Waiting Rooms are more quiet, whose waits are longer, with larger concerns and situations. Like a friend waiting for a CAT scan and it's results, many family and friends traveling right now - including several missionaries coming to/from the fields, and for the many lonely women I know who don't feel the comfort of their Savior while they wait for a friend to come to their side....may they feel His presence.

A Waiting Room is not a bad place to be... when I ask Him (God) to be here with me....