Life is full of waiting. We wait for paperwork to arrive in the mail, investments to grow, and phone calls to come. We wait for our kids to graduate, our incomes to go up, and the scale to go down. We wait in government offices, theater lobbies, bus stops, and airports.

None of us are any good at waiting. We want results, and we want them yesterday. With the whole world on fast-forward, it irritates us to have to push the pause button, especially when anxiety is running high. A friend of 3 decades recently received a surprising cancer diagnosis. It began with a routine appointment and a bit of question-worthy data.

One test led to another, and in just a few days, she’d heard the shocking news. After surgery to remove a tumor, her doctor told her it would be another 2 weeks before he could give her the details of her post-op treatment, and suddenly she’d been plunked into some very worrisome wait-time.

The waiting rooms of doctors’ offices might just as accurately be called “anxiety rooms.” As a person waits, she may have an open magazine on her lap, but her mind is far away, pondering the what-ifs. Whether we’re upset about new symptoms, waiting for a specific diagnosis, or wondering what our treatment will be, the feeling is the same: apprehension.

I remember waiting to hear what was physically wrong with Nate, wondering if our lives might radically change with what we would be told. My friend, too, has experienced that same nervousness, but she’s made a conscious decision to submit herself to whatever God allows into her life. Asking for prayer, she sent a group email that included a unique testimony. Not knowing what would happen, she was able to calmly write, “I’m in God’s waiting room.”

The minute I read that I knew she was going to rise above her circumstances, because she had lined up with God’s sovereignty over her life, even a life involving cancer. No fidgeting while waiting, no “why me,” no “how could you!” and no anger. Sure, she has questions, but she has fixed her gaze on her heavenly Father and is accomplishing a supremely difficult task: waiting patiently.

While the world’s waiting rooms are marked by angst and dread, God’s waiting room has divine purposes for each occupant. Instead of magazines to read, he offers security. Instead of stale coffee he hands out contentment. Instead of frayed nerves, he provides inner peace. My friend has been brought to a screeching halt, but God hasn’t. He’s energetically putting a plan in motion that will eventually pour considerable blessing into her life.

And he’ll do that because she has committed to an obedient stay in his waiting room.

“Since the world began, no ear has heard, and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!” (Isaiah 64:4)