Camp Robber #1: Unrealistic Expectations
Camp Robber #2: Unreasonable Questioning
Camp Robber #3: Unplanned Waiting
I’ve spent my share of time in waiting rooms. I don’t like them! In a waiting room, we hover between now and not yet. In a waiting room, we often float between what if and what is. We’re waiting for a yes or a no, good news or bad news, this or that answer. Our lives are disrupted and normalcy disregarded. It’s just simply a yucky place to be. (Hospitals, Urgent Care, and Airports are the worst!)
At the moment, I’m not really in a waiting room. In fact, I find I’m in a sweet season. Don’t get me wrong, trials still poke their heads through the ground all around me at various times and in random ways. Yet, inside I feel a lovely calm. I want to seize this moment for all it’s worth, mostly because I’m a glass half-full kind of girl. I’m aware that just around the corner is sure to be another “when” (not an “if”).
Side note: I’ve simply had to laugh at myself. Here I am, in one breath, saying I’m not in a waiting room, while in another breath, I seem to be in a waiting room waiting to be put in a waiting room. It’s like I’m putting myself in a place where I’m waiting for a new “hard” season… Does that make sense? Sometimes I simply spend too much time thinking…
So, back to waiting rooms. This week, in reading verses on joy, I ran across David’s psalm from a “dry and weary land where there is no water (Psalm 63:1).”
Now, that’s a great description of a waiting room! Yet, in the middle of this place, he says, “I will sing for joy (vs.7)” and “…my soul will be satisfied and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips (vs. 5).” It’s worth taking notes on how he’s done that, for that next season of hard, that next unplanned waiting room where I find myself.
Here are five things that David teaches us about waiting rooms:
1. David sought the presence of God (vs. 1). Years ago, I read Richard Foster’s book, Celebration of Discipline. In it, he lists several methods for earnestly seeking and finding God’s presence. I highly recommend the book, but the one that was life-changing for me was his chapter on meditation. Creating time and space to think, to ponder, to listen. Meditation isn’t about asking, or telling. It’s not praying…it’s simply listening for God’s still voice to rise above the other voices calling out to us in our world.
2. David grabbed “sanctuary” moments (vs. 2) where he could behold the glory of the Lord, and focus on God’s character. My sanctuary is a corner of the couch in our family room. Sometimes, it’s a quiet corner of the zoo, or a place behind our house in the national forest. Dry and weary places call for us to be intentional in discovering sanctuaries. Even David’s bed became a place where he could remember God and meditate on Him (vs. 6).
3. David hid himself in the shadow of God’s wings and clung to Him (vs. 7-8). Metaphorically, David tucked himself inside the presence of God’s comfortable wings. He clung (“dabaq”: to abide) to His Lord for safety in a place where he could feel God’s heart beat.
4. In spite of how things looked and felt, David trusted his future to the One Who Held His Future (vs. 9-10). God’s already been there, all the way to the end of our time. He’s spelled our future out with these letters V.I.C.T.O.R.Y. In the here and now, we have to remember the there and then. God’s got it all, and He is FOR ME!
5. David sang (vs 7)! Nothing seems to speak to my heart more than singing spiritually uplifting and encouraging reminders about the Lord. That could be why Paul instructed us to often admonish each other in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Col. 3:16). David sang…for joy!
There’s no need for waiting rooms to steal our joy; especially when we can sing instead!
