My Cup Runneth Over: The Waiting Room

I spend a lot of time waiting - in line, for test results, at the stop light, for my turn to talk, for prayers to be answered, for things to make sense, for someone to apologize, for someone to like me, for things to just fall together. And quite frankly, I do not enjoy waiting. I can distinctly remember summers at Astroworld when I wasted the better part of 2 hours, waiting in line to ride this thing or that and sweating in the heat the whole time. Two hours of waiting, for 30 seconds of thrill. It hardly seems worth it in retrospect. But I guess that is the thing, we wouldn't wait if the thing we were waiting for wasn't seen as necessary or worth it on our eyes.

I do not have what you would call a patient spirit when it comes to some things, waiting being one of them. I like to get in and get out. I have agendas and schedules and waiting just puts serious roadblocks to the plans I make for myself. But very often I find myself in the waiting room of God, just waiting to see what He is going to do next. Well, let me back up and say that I am often forced in to the waiting room of God - against my will. On rare occasions I enter in of my own accord, but mostly (and this is something I am working on) I find myself there for lack of options. In this period I am waiting for God to do something, and I expect that the end result of all this waiting will be worth it. What I mean is that I often hope that if I have to wait on God, He better show up huge in the end. And by "huge" I mean, exactly the way I want Him to. I can be pretty silly that way.

Now I know that the waiting room is absolutely necessary, as it forces me to wait for the green light of God. Without it, I sure would find myself in many a "wreck". And I also know that this waiting room leads to a "hope and a future" that is tailor made for me. In this way, the ends certainly do justify the means. But what I want to do is get to the point where I enjoy the waiting, and not just what it brings. I want to get to the point where I can appreciate the conditions of waiting, whether they are comfortable and easy

or slightly less so.

I would like to be able to say that I waited, through the scorching Texas heat, for two hours, and came away feeling refreshed - even before I entered in to the will of God. Because often the waiting is His will. He wants us there so that He can prepare us for what is on the other side of that door. But for me, it is all about that door. My focus is on getting to the other side. So much so, that I don't stop and think about what I may need to be doing or seeing here, in this room - with these people and in these circumstances.

Yes, I am waiting on something in my life right now. I always am. But regardless if that something is a person, an answer, a plan or a promise I am finding that I need to keep my eyes on God. Someone I know was once struggling with drinking and a pastor told them that their problem was that God and the bottle were standing in a line. It was impossible to focus on both at the same time. If you focus on one, the other gets blurry and loses contrast. The advice was that God needed to be the focus, and then the bottle would become less clear. I think that for me, this makes perfect sense in regards to waiting. As long as I am waiting, I must focus on God and not that thing. Only then can I truly enjoy the waiting process. AS they say, "time flies when you're having fun". What can be more fun than standing in line with the best friend in the world?