July 19.2007

"Therefore will the Lord wait that [here's the object of the exercise] He may be gracious unto you and therefore, will HE be exalted that he may have mercy on you....blessed are they who wait upon Him." Is 30:18

None of us like waiting. I don't know anyone who likes to wait. Yet it would be interesting to know how many hours of our life are spent doing just that! We wait in line at the bank, the cleaners, the fast food restaurants, the gas station and the grocery store. We wait on the phone, pressing 1, then 3, then 4, then holding forever only to be frustrated because the person we finally get doesn't speak English and doesn't have a clue how to solve our problem! We wait on checks to arrive in the mail, credits to be applied to our accounts, the FREE gift to arrive that we have been waiting for and photos online of our friend's new grandbaby. But one of the worst places to wait is a doctor or dentist office. You can smell that medicinal smell that just puts your stomach in knots. You can hear the whirr of the drill and you can hear children cry in fear or in pain. Even if you are only there for a check up it can be nerve-wracking. But, if you are there for something more serious, it can be chilling as you wait for the doctor's diagnosis. Tests are run and the waiting continues, sometimes for hours, sometimes days. It is agonizing whether it is for ourselves or for someone we love.

All our lives we are waiting. Did you know that there are even websites that will calculate the day of your death so you can WATCH the seconds click away as you wait for D - Day? (See www.deathclock.com). It is gruesome...yet sobering to SEE the seconds of your life clicking away. It really gets your attention that we need to be making the most of those precious seconds rather than idly WATCHING them.

For some there are not many seconds left. A dear friend is watching her sweet mother slowly slip away. They are not sure how many seconds are left on her clock, but they are few. When the reality of that hits, it is hard. To see one that you love so dearly, one who has always been there for you, the one who gave you life, who has always been a part of your life now slipping slowly from your grasp is heart-rending. Yet with the pain and the fear and the mental torture that this one is in, it forces you to want to let go for her relief, even though from an earthly perspective you'd like to hold her here for just a while longer. Yet you know that she will be with the Lord she loves, you know that the angels are hovering ever near and so you wait and you kiss her tenderly one more time, because before you return she could be transported to Heaven. And so you wait................

God waits. He puts us in His waiting room for a purpose. We all find ourselves there from time to time. Sometimes we are in a waiting room for health reasons, sometimes for financial reasons, sometimes for spiritual reasons. Sometimes we are waiting on the answer to a prayer....a prayer for the safety and the health of a loved one, the return of a wayward child, the job opportunity that has been so long in coming, for reconciliation between loved ones, for the safe return of the child or spouse in the military. But God waits and the answers do not come as quickly as we would like. Days turn into months and months can turn into years sometimes. But this verse tells us that God waits so that He can be gracious to us. He wants GOOD things for us. He wants to be merciful to us. In the midst of the waiting, it does not seem very gracious. But when we look back, we will see His hand and realize WHY He waited...why His timing was perfect. There is another reason He waits too. He waits so that HE will be exalted...not you...! That's right! It's not about YOU...it's about HIM!!

So the next time you find yourself waiting and are getting frustrated, remember....He's being gracious and it's not about YOU, it's about HIM!!! Maybe that will help your perspective a little as you wait in God's waiting room.

Oh, by the way, according to the Life Clock (www.bellaonline.com/misc/quiz/lifeclock) I have 27 years or 321 months or 9,776 days, or 234,610 hours or 14,076,600 minutes left, so I better get busy!!