Many years ago, I took a self-guided tour of the hospital where I would soon have my third child. Entering the wide front doors, the gentle aroma of a pleasant perfume filled the air. Emerging from the elevator onto the floor of the maternity ward, the scent was there too! In fact, the scent was prevalent in every nook and cranny of the hospital. I marveled at how, clearly, the hospital management had the scent piped in! Of course, I reasoned, they would do this to quell the fears and queasy stomachs of visitors and patients alike. Brilliant!
On the way out, I stopped at the hospital gift shop. Behind the counter were two elderly ladies, both white-haired. One had a whisper of pale blue rinsed into her white hair, making it look a little like cotton candy. I kind of gushed at both of them, "I am amazed that the hospital has piped in scent! Everywhere it smells so lovely! The hospital administration is brilliant!"
The blue-haired lady looked away quickly, while the other lady fixed her eyes sternly on her friend. Finally, the blue-haired lady looked up at me slowly, extending her wrist, "Does it smell like this?" she asked sweetly. "Yes! That's it!" I replied enthusiastically, the truth starting to dawn on me. Suddenly, the white-haired lady said to her cotton candy haired friend,
"Agnes, I told you, you wear too much perfume!"
I laugh every time I think of this scenario and so do my friends and family. Today, twenty-eight years later, I have a new use for this story. What in the world do we do while waiting in God's waiting room? Not necessarily the waiting room of any hospital, but all of the many waiting rooms we find ourselves in as maturing Christians.
In Isaiah 40:31 is the famous scripture, "but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." (ESV)
There is almost always a waiting period before the things we long for come to pass. Sometimes a very long waiting period. And, if you were born impatient like me, the waiting can be agonizing. When I was in my 30's and 40's the waiting was so excruciating to me I simply plowed ahead. I simply could not stand the wait. What finally changed?
It was fatigue, not obedience, that first got my attention to begin to learn to do things God's way.
Now in my early 60's, I know for a certainty that everything always works out better when I wait upon the Lord. I also know for sure that God offers us an exchange for our impatience. He gives us His "peace which passes all understanding" in every situation where He asks us to trust Him, to wait upon Him. (Philippians 4:7) This peace is the very thing that allows us to wait it out, to not take it back every five minutes, to rest until the fulfillment of God's plans come to pass. You appreciate God's peace even more when you don't have it. Over time, you learn to develop an appetite for it. This is what happened to me after decades of fighting for control and wanting to plow ahead of God, while calling it obedience.
You "enter in" to God's peace while you fast (temporarily) on the desire of your heart, and find this is sufficient. It is not lacking in nutrients to sustain. It is profoundly comforting and substantial.
As we breathe in and live inside of God's peace, we notice the aroma of the Waiting Room as one that is pleasant, not painful or a place to run away from. Believe me when I say this was a long, hard road for me. No one could have disliked waiting more than I and I would devise many plans to try and effect my own way. (Proverbs 16:9) God was patient with me, drew me back in, whispered into my ear, granted His peace - and He continues to work with me on this.
What I can say with certainty today is that God's Waiting Room carries a sweetness and a comfort, knowing you are protected, that He has good plans for you, that He is working on your behalf to bring them to pass, and that He will do even more abundantly than what you could ask or think. In the meantime, munch on His peace, and enjoy the aroma of Christ, that sense of knowing you are exactly where you should be in the center of His will, and that God always keeps His promises. He will surely bring good things to pass for you as well.
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