And I want to be Happy and Summer Carefree, but I have been in .....
The Waiting Place
According to Dr Seuss, it is a most useless place ... the waiting place where people are just waiting. The place of plea bargains, oaths to the Creator, and life priorities evaluated. But when your back is up against the wall, desperately wanting an outcome ...
The messages kept coming back as prayer requests ...
Katya's not well, she's being admitted.
It looks like endocarditis (an infection of the heart's inner lining)
Antibiotics not effective ...
Medivac'd in the night to a bigger cardiology centre ...
(They are all displaced-this is not even their home province)
Surgery scheduled, cancelled, then rescheduled ...
Twelve hours in surgery ... while they wait
Bleeding, back to the OR ...
With those texts as background, I picked up a second hand book ... Moving the Hand of God, (the book disappoints, and I argue my way through the introduction; I don't see God as Formulaic, as one who cannot see through this attempted manipulation).
My friend's life hangs in the balance. She may not know she is in the waiting place ... where is one's spirit when drugs render unconsciousness? Her daughters gathered are also in that waiting place. Waiting for good news, waiting for improvement .... waiting for the rain to stop.
This is the Waiting place. WELCOME TO THE WAITING ROOM...
Waiting feels helpless, useless.
Lamentations 3:28, 29 When Life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions: Wait for hope to appear.
How does one wait with hope?
Can I Trust you
Dear God
I woke with knots in my stomach ... so many questions whirling my head ...
Can I trust You with the knots?
Heavy heart over her, as life hangs in the balance ... machines breathe for her
Can I trust you with that?
Life not being what I or they thought it should be or would be.....
Can I trust you with the future?
Despair and doubt want to hinder any Bold prayer
Can I trust you with that?
... ...
Even as I speak these words, I KNOW without a doubt, I have no one else that I could trust these things to, so why do I hold back God?
Can I trust you with that?
And your answer is a Resounding—YES YES YES!
I stretch lame hands of faith and grope,
And gather dust and chaff and call
To what I feel is Lord of all,
And faintly trust the larger hope.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
I have had the privilege in the past three weeks to rejoice with those who rejoice(wedding), and to mourn and pray with those who mourn. Between an unexpected trip to visit a treasured friend in a cardiac ICU and a planned wedding trip, my day to post has arrived. This is a repeat of my July first, at http://whoistalking.wordpress.com, if you do not follow my blog, this is an invite to take a look at it.
While the waiting place is one of the difficult rooms entered into in the writing process, in comparison with the ICU waiting room, it's a party room. I have gained a new perspective in my being present in the moments that come.
The waiting place is a "useless place" has sparked a lot of thought in me. How different is the waiting place for each individual and how useless is it, really. I love your title! It intrigued me right away along with your quote from Dr. Seuss since his books are still my favourite. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteBless your heart for your waiting with a friend, and for posting a thought-provoking article, Jocelyn.
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