God's Waiting Room

I recently enjoyed an enlightening and lively conversation with a dear friend of mine over the phone.  This is not an unusual occurrence, since this particular friend lives several hundreds of miles away from me and the telephone is our frequent choice for connecting with one another.  She is also a very bright, intuitive, and spiritual woman.  We often discuss matters of our faith and share concerns with each other; we also laugh a lot and encourage each other.  It is a beneficial friendship and one that has stood the test of many years.

This particular conversation was centered on some unanswered questions in my friend's life and a certain level of frustration she is feeling with what she referred to as "God's silence on these matters."  According to this dear friend of mine, she has prayed fervently to the Lord seeking His clear direction for a number of serious issues with which she is currently wrestling.  Not unlike myself, my friend is a woman who likes to have control of the things going on around her.  She is highly organized and methodical in her approach to daily chores and jobs, and she is a task-oriented individual.  When trying to accomplish a particular task, this woman identifies obstacles to her success quickly and is swift to address and remove those obstacles... she is a consummate problem solver, some would say.  However, right now she has found herself in that most uncomfortable of places-- that is, God's waiting room.  It is an uncomfortable, unsettling place for her.  She desperately wants answers, but God doesn't appear to be answering any of her questions right now.  To her heart, He remains silent.

I, too, am a highly organized and methodical person.  I am a take-charge kind of gal.  I want to know that not only are all my ducks in a row, but they are all marching along obediently to the beat of my tiny drum.  I don't like unanswered questions, nor do I enjoy waiting on the Lord to answer them.  Some people would refer to me as a Type A personality.  Whatever the label, suffice to say that waiting patiently on God to act in answer to my prayers is typically not something at which I am very skilled.  Hello!  Can anyone out there identify with my friend and me?

If I have learned anything in this faith walk of mine, it is that God's timing is never the same as mine; His ways are never mine.  Nonetheless, His timing is always perfect, as are His methods of action.  My son, Shawn, once said to me (oh, by the way... Shawn is also a Type A sort of guy-- the apple didn't fall far from the tree there!):  "You know, Mom, I have found that when faced with any given situation in my life, I am able to come up with about 1,000 ways in which I figure God could act on my behalf.  And I don't hesitate to let Him know all His options.  But you know what?  It seems He always chooses way #1,001."  As I have often thought of Shawn's insight, I am convinced that the Lord is quick to remind His children that it is HE who is in charge of this universe.  God is still on His throne, and He is still diligently at work in the lives of believers... whether it is in our timing, our way, or not.

My friend shared that she has prayed "so hard" that she simply cannot understand why God has not given her answers to her questions.  I was reminded of how hard Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, and how (when he went to check on his disciples) his companions failed him time and again.  In fact, the disciples just kept falling asleep.  How frustrated Christ must have felt.  Not only did his best friends not support him in prayer at that time, but his repeated trips to the throne of grace went unanswered by God... and He was Christ's own Father.  I know there have been many times I have prayed fervently, sincerely, passionately.  And yet, not once have I prayed with such a burden of heart that I have actually sweat "...great drops of blood" as Jesus did there in that garden.  Yet, in the end, Christ humbly stated, "Nevertheless, not my will, but Your will be done, Father." 

I did not possess any miraculous answers for my friend that day.  The beautiful part of our friendship is that she didn't really expect me to.  I just listened and tried to understand.  I promised to pray with her for those long-sought-after answers.  Then my friend said this:  "I just don't understand what God is doing here."  With just a moment of quiet thought, I replied:  "And aren't we blessed to not understand our God?  After all, if we did we would be worshiping our contemporary, not our Lord and the God of all creation."  Our finite human minds will never be capable of understanding the infinite.  We will never see the "whole picture" as He does.  We do not serve our equal... we serve Almighty God.

The next time you find yourself in God's waiting room and are tempted to complain or feel sorry for yourself, remember that He alone is worthy of our worship.  He alone is omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent (all powerful), omnipresent (everywhere in all things), and eternal (without limits of time).  With God there is no past, present, or future... all things are one great, unbroken now.  It is not a matter of whether He has been faithful in the past, nor is it a question of whether He will be faithful some time in the future.  God is faithful NOW.  His silence may be a part of drawing us closer to Him.  Perhaps we're just too busy telling Him what we think He should do... and we cannot hear His voice over our own.  May we all learn to rest as we wait on Him.

  "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

(Isaiah 40:31)