Spend time in the Waiting Room of Your Soul

I have a difficult time in waiting rooms. My Kindle has made it easier.

They have even changed the name from waiting room to waiting areas. I guess it to relieve the anxiety of being "roomed". Technology has made waiting bearable. Now if you look around as people wait, they are teching. As a little boy, I remember that the waiting rooms had the children's magazines that my family could never afford.

It seems that there are longer waiting times in certain areas of life. At one point in my life, there was a doctor that I visited that each office visit required a minimum of an hour waiting. It really bothered me. It bothered me so much that one time when the doctor came to my office to visit, he waited for 30 minutes. I know it was a mean thing to do. But when he finally came in to speak to me, he said something about having to wait. When I told him of my experience at his office, he laughed. It seemed that the waiting time at his office was shorter after that.

I have never been a camp out kind of waiter. You see these folks during the holidays camping outside a store to be able to buy a certain product. Or when a celebrity is coming to town, to buy the front row seats, they camp out. The computer has pretty much trumped out these guys. Don't tell them though. I think they want to camp out and wait.

Ruth Haley Barton in her book, Sacred Rhythms, has a phrase that captured my attention. She speaks of "the waiting room of the soul". As I read those words, I stopped to think. Does my soul have a waiting room? And if my soul does have a waiting room, am I hurrying through it or even spending any time in it?

Fast track faith is what we want--or at least what I want. Okay God, what ever you are going to do--get her done! I need to move on to the next phase or next project. I laugh when I think of the "list to do" that I have recited to God as if God would be hurried by my list. You might say that I want to have the baby without the time of pregnancy. My motto to those living through pregnancy is "life will eventually arrive!" The waiting is so inconvenient and hard to do.

I think God has intent about waiting. The waiting room of the soul is where transformation happens. It is where we put aside the hurried life and all its trappings. In the waiting room of the soul, God invites us to create an intimacy. In the waiting room of the soul, each individual yields to God's purpose and God's plan. It is the holy space where we become holy.

Maybe there is a waiting room where we need to spend more time, not less. Be still. Wait for the Lord.