I’m no stranger to waiting.

God has built this theme into my story season after season. I was nearly 30 when I met the man I would marry and experienced a life-altering call to ministry alongside him. In those early starry-eyed days, we were convinced God was about to do something huge with us in ministry. But it would take more than 10 years for the vision to become a reality.

I waited on the home front, too. When my husband and I began trying to expand our family, we were blindsided by a long season of infertility. It was crushing. We felt God pressing us to trust Him and not to interfere with His plan. So, hearts heavy, we paused our plans and poured ourselves into ministry. Eventually, we were called to adopt. Even this proved to be such a complicated case that it took over six years to finalize.

I tell you this so you know I understand the strain waiting puts on a heart and a spiritual walk.

But here’s the thing I wish so much I could grab the shoulders of my younger self and say: For reasons God only knows, the waiting room, at this exact moment, is precisely where you need to be. I know it isn’t where you want to be. But if you turn around and examine the place where you are, you’ll discover you’re not alone. Three companions God has lovingly placed there are waiting to meet you. And trust me, you’ll want to get to know them.  

I know it isn’t where you want to be. But if you turn around and examine the place where you are, you’ll discover you’re not alone.

The Model

You’ve probably heard the story of Esther, a biblical rags-to-riches fairy tale. It chronicles a young Jewish orphan’s unlikely rise to the position of queen of the Persian empire. But we often forget that before there was Esther, there had been Queen Vashti. And Esther, no doubt, learned a lot from her. Vashti’s reign certainly informed Esther about the perks, protocol, and pitfalls of her position.

We have such a habit of viewing others in the role we desire as a threat rather than a resource. But it’s wisdom, not weakness, to look to those who have walked the road before us. So, since you’re waiting anyway, why not observe people who are doing, right now, what you feel you’re being called to?

Have you seen anyone succeeding in what you desire to do? Study their methods. Adopt their practices and habits now. And I bet you won’t have to look too hard to find others showing you how not to do it. Why not learn from their mistakes, make mental notes, and build safety measures into your life now? Use your time as a training ground for later. When we stop viewing the waiting room as abandonment and punishment and start looking at it as a training arena, we discover that the time we have with the models is God’s gift to us.

The Mentor

No one influenced Esther’s growth and decisions more than Mordecai. He walked alongside her, investing, elevating, providing wise counsel, and sometimes challenging her. She may have had the title, but it is his words that ring out across time, challenging us even today: “And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?” (Es 4:14, NASB).

Do you have a Mordecai? I bet you do. You don’t necessarily get to choose who they are. They are people willing to invest their time in you, sharing wisdom, challenging and informing you, and giving you access to their hard-won influence and experience. This might be a boss, a more seasoned Christian, or an in-law. They may even be offering you unsolicited advice. Can you envision them now?

Maybe you can do it alone. Maybe not. Regardless, that’s not God’s best for you.

I often bristled at mine in my youth, feeling like they offered judgment or an attempt to belittle me. “I can do it all by myself,” I thought incredulously. Yet, to ignore those who have opened their hearts and lives to us is to reject a gift from God’s gracious hand. Don’t make this mistake because of your pride. Maybe you can do it alone. Maybe not. Regardless, that’s not God’s best for you.

The Maker

I’ve saved the best for last.

Waiting can be exhausting. Thankfully, God’s presence energizes and uplifts us in the waiting room. You may not realize this, but that’s the whole purpose of the waiting room in our lives.

“Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength,” Isaiah 40:31 promises, “They will mount up on wings like eagles […] they will walk and not become weary.” We tend to think of waiting as some passive experience, just biding time until we get what we want. But what we need is already with us in the waiting. The key is in the biblical word for wait—it doesn’t mean what you might think. It means to bind together, to intertwine. So, in the space between the promise and the fulfillment, the key to our success is to cling to our Creator.

Biblical waiting means offering complete, active dependence to God. It releases our plans, timing, conditions, and worries to fiercely cling to His presence, plan, pace, and promises. To let Him be sufficient. Dear friend, if you are weary in your waiting, it’s time you face your Maker.

In these seasons of waiting, it is so tempting to feel like God is absent. But God is in the waiting room—He’s waiting with you and for you. And here’s the secret of the waiting room: once you discover the treasure to be found there, it won’t matter if that door on which your gaze was fixed ever opens. You’ll have reached the truth that to be with Him is to be genuinely home; come what may. And that is a gift worth waiting for.