August 9, 2016 (Tuesday)
There are many types of waiting rooms. They all have something in common: waiting.
I’ve been thinking about the waiting rooms I’ve visited through the years.
The waiting rooms at Union Station and Southern Pacific Railroad in Houston were huge and spacious, even somewhat palatial. The benches were long and at night provided a place to sleep while waiting for one’s train.
The bus station waiting rooms, however, were not as large and were generally very crowded. Usually there was a small restaurant attached. Later models put individual coin-operated tv screens at the chairs. Back in the day those rooms were smoke-filled, busy and sometimes noisy.
Then there are the emergency room waiting areas. People call 911, the ambulance comes right away, the trip to the ER is fast, and then the waiting begins. The patient cannot understand why they don’t start treatment right away. I guess they do at times, but often the patient has to wait for what seems like a long time.
How about the surgery waiting rooms? And the ICU waiting rooms? There are many prayers offered from those rooms. I’ve spent many hours with concerned families in those rooms. Families tend to melt together into one great big one in critical care waiting rooms.
And the doctor’s offices. You have an appointment for 2:00 p.m. but you don’t get in to see the doctor until 3:00 p.m., and then you wait in the treatment room, sometimes for another hour. The waiting room is almost always quiet. During a recent visit I made to a doctor’s waiting room, someone used the word, “politics,” and a hot conversation developed that was all about gun control. I visited the same waiting room today and all was quiet. Not a peep from anyone. Stillness. Awkward.
How about the waiting room at the Social Security office. First, you take a number off a rolodex looking device, and you wait your turn. When Troy Conner and I got our Social Security cards at Houston’s Federal Building around 1942, we were the only ones in the office. There was only one person behind the counter. No waiting. Those were the days.
Wait. Wait for the lawyer, the salesman, the checkout clerk, the late employee, the husband or wife who’s “not quite ready yet,” the child who refuses to get started early in the day, the dog who balks, the cat who can’t decide what kind of day you are going to have, the date who hasn’t shown up yet, the red light, the gas pump, etc. etc. Waiting is a part of our lives. Why shouldn’t we have a special room for it?
There is, however, a special kind of waiting we need. It’s mentioned in Psalms 27:14. Here’s what it says: “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”