waiting...

Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently for him...

Psalm 37:7

recently, i have been doing hospital visits for members in the congregation i am serving. i don't know if my presence has done anything for these folks, but i have learned a lot about life in the few visits i have made.

you see, hospitals aren't just a place that people go to get well... or maybe to die... but hospitals seem to be places where people go to wait. everyone in the hospital is waiting. people are waiting to see loved ones who are not well. patients are waiting to be seen by doctors. some are waiting for test results or to go into surgery. others are waiting to be released to go home. a few are waiting to pass on from this world. everyone that i have gone to see has been waiting for something.

i will admit that i have felt rather helpless in the hospital. i don't have the results that people are waiting for, or the drugs that will relieve the pain they are in or make them well, or the answers about what decisions to make concerning their health. so, i have found that my job is to wait with them. this waiting is not without purpose, though.

it seems most of my life has been about waiting. wait to get to drive, or to graduate high school, or to get married, or to go back to school. now, it seems i am waiting to be done with school, to get a job, to have children... but so often in life we run ourselves ragged in these times of waiting. we don't create opportunities to stop and think. we don't live in the moment. we just go, go, go, go, go to get to what we are waiting for. and as one of my youth pastors used to say, our lives end up like whirlpools. everything looks great until the jets stop, and all the junk that was unseen in the raging waters floats to the surface. it is all the junk that we don't want to deal with, so we keep ourselves busy in order to avoid dealing with it.

hospitals force us to stop... and wait. it is unfortunate that it is only in times that we are unwell that we stop and wait, for there is great value in this waiting. it is patient waiting (no pun intended, serious!)- albeit somewhat forced because there is nowhere to go and nothing to do.

it is in this time that Jesus becomes so apparent. it is in this time that He can deal with the junk in our lives. not that He wasn't always there, but it is just that He is less apparent when we try to fit Him into our schedule. scripture shows us that Jesus doesn't work on our schedule. in fact, there are instances where people are upset with Jesus when He doesn't show up "in time," and someone has died. as if God's timing isn't always perfect.

the thing is, we have to learn to stop and patiently wait for God. He will reveal what He is up to. He does this on His time, though... not ours. in the meantime, maybe we should stop waiting for things to come and enjoy the things we have.

so this is what i do in hospitals. i patiently wait with others. and Jesus always shows up.

cheers,
jw <><