The Waiting Is The Hardest Part...

Been here before.  Same industrial furniture.  Same harsh flourescent lighting.  Same feel...
Worry.  Hope.  Impatience.  Comfort.  Did I mention 'worry'?

They call this place 'the waiting room'.  Very appropriate.
Because in the words of the great Tom Petty, "the waiting is the hardest part."

Hospital waiting rooms are the worst
Literally...you wait.
For answers
Solutions
Cures
Assurance
Heartbreak

And it takes so much energy to wait.

I think that because fear hangs onto your shoulders...
Whispers into your imagination all the worst case scenarios

So we sit
Waiting...
and too often waiting on the worst

"Will he get better?"
"Will I find a job?"
"Do they still love me?"

These are the questions we ask in the 'waiting room'
They point to our sense of security, normalcy, and identity
Of what we're anchored to.  Of what we cling to...

Ask yourself this...
Before that September morning in 2001, did you spend much time wondering when the next terror attack would come?

Do you ever find yourself 'waiting for the other shoe to drop'?
Did you catch that?  Waiting.

Waiting is so hard because we pin our hopes on circumstances and others
On stuff of this world and of this moment.

What if we shifted the focus of our waiting?  Maybe to something like this...

"but those who wait on the Lord

Shall renew their strength"

Isaiah 40:31 NKJV

Not a promise for a fairy tale ending
But it is a guarantee that God will provide the strength to carry on...
Regardless of the outcome of the wait

Because eventually we all leave the waiting room
Eventually we all walk out into the life after the wait

The strength (or lack thereof) for that life comes from what we've been waiting on

Christmas has that way of making us remember the magic and the promise of 'the wait'
Whether its a gift wrapped in colored paper...
or swaddling clothes

We sing about God's great faithfulness
"strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow"
But its only when we choose to wait on the Lord for...
Comfort
Strength
Forgiveness
Hope
Peace

Its only then that we get the strength to stand...
Whatever the outcome of the wait is

But don't kid yourself...
The waiting is the hardest part