In God's waiting room...

This morning in church the message was about being in God's waiting room and it made me think about the times that I recently spent in various medical settings in a waiting room.  I had a lot of time to observe the staff, the patients, the way people were treated and the way people wanted or expected to be treated. Everybody was not as patient with the waiting as was needed - to the credit of the medical staff they were always polite and helped as quickly and efficiently as possible.  Waiting is not easy, especially if you are not feeling well and you are waiting to be tended to.  Waiting is not convenient.  Waiting is not our first choice in any setting and I think in our instant world it is becoming increasingly difficult to wait for anything, let alone to wait on God.

Waiting on God can have different meanings, though. Waiting can be passive or active.  It can mean to literally passively sit and wait until something happens or your needs are tended to.  However the active meaning of waiting can be illustrated as follows.  A waiter waits on his or her customer.  It's not a passive thing, it's an active thing.  They wait to see if the customer gives an indication of something they need or if some piece of cutlery should be taken away.  Many years ago I had Sunday lunch with my parents at a hotel that offered a silver-service Sunday lunch.  Those waiters brought serviettes and dished up your food and cleared the table constantly.  Before you could even think something was needed, they already did it.  Recently I was eating at an outdoor restaurant and my fork fell on the pavement.  Before I could even catch the waiter's attention to ask him for a clean one he already got the clean fork and brought it to me.  That is an active way of waiting on someone.  What if we change our perspective of waiting on God from something that is a passive 'I-am-sitting-and-doing-nothing-till-God-answers-attitude" to an active waiting on God?  This requires keen detail observing.  Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus to see what His next move or instruction is.  God does not always give us all the information beforehand, but gives enough and if we walk in immediate obedience, the rest will follow and eventually we will have the full picture.   

So while in God's waiting room, waiting for that breakthrough or that promise to be fulfilled, what if we ask ourselves:

1.  What is God building/forming in me while I am waiting?

2.  What is God calling me to do while I wait?

3.  Who is waiting with me and why?  Who am I to be to the person who waits with me?  

I think the answers to these questions may give us enough to celebrate while waiting on God for whatever we are waiting for...

Wait upon the Lord - Leeland