God's Waiting Room Was Created For Childlike Behavior!

“But hope means that we must trust and wait for what is still unseen. For why would we need to hope for something we already have? So because our hope is set on what is yet to be seen, we patiently keep waiting for its fulfillment.” Romans 8:24-25 TPT

I feel like I have to giggle just a bit at this title. The truth is that when I picture a waiting room, I envision myself in a sterile and cold doctor’s office with a big note in huge, bold letters placed on the door listing out all of the do’s and don’ts of waiting room etiquette. I imagine a stern woman behind the desk giving the dreaded stink eye if you (or worse – your unruly or wild children) stumble into one of the boldly listed faux pas. Clearly, this woman has had years of practice because her look is perfected to a point that even if you have done nothing wrong, you begin to squirm in your seat, feeling yourself shrink inwards at the mere thought. I imagine feeling held in place by your discomfort, sitting quietly while you anxiously await the moment your name is called and you can escape this painful feeling that you are seen as merely another box that is checked in the appointment calendar, and not known by the heart that is inside. Sterile. Cold. Uncomfortable. Alone and Unknown.

I honestly hope that this over-exaggerated example has not been your personal experience with clinic or hospital waiting rooms, but I felt it necessary to draw a picture anyways. Why? Because sometimes this is exactly how we see God’s waiting room. We envision a space where we are to be reserved and quiet, praying silently and tucking any and all other emotions away behind our perfect faith. We are to be stewards of God’s plan, patiently waiting in our seats for His timing – the moment He calls our name and provides. We are held in place, captured and bound by the belief that this is the only appropriate waiting room etiquette – especially when in God’s waiting room. And friends, I felt like it was time for someone to shout from the rooftops and say… God’s waiting room was not created for such rules and restrictions as these. It was created for wild, untamed, unreserved, unfiltered, bold and authentic childlike behavior. And I am so excited to share with you what He’s been teaching me! So, let’s not sit still any longer! Let’s jump right in and get started!

Now, if you’re a parent, I want you to imagine walking into a waiting room and just setting your kids free. I want you to envision yourself telling them, encouraging them, really, to be as loud, unfiltered, authentic, and wild as they feel in their hearts. This is a safe space to just… be. I want you to picture the waiting room filled with things for them to explore and discover. You know that growth and learning will inevitably take place in this space if they are free to explore it with childlike wonder and unreserved hearts, so you invite them to do just that. It’s loud. It’s wild. One kid is crying. Another is happily rejoicing over a recent discovery or the promise of a fascinating exploration that is about to unfold. Some kids are active while others sit quietly observing, gathering the confidence to join the chaos in front of them, all the while being lovingly reassured that they are protected and safe.

This is God’s waiting room, my friends. This is where we are invited to dance, cry, yell, or explore as He – here’s the key – prepares us for the beautiful promise.

More recently, God has been calling me to be very active in the wait; to boldly pray with confidence in His nature. He has been calling me to take steps to prepare for the fruition of the promise, believing in His goodness and faithfulness. And He has been growing me… a lot. Radical heart transformations take place in the wait. “Do not sit still,” He’s been instructing. “Boldly step into the breakthrough.” And I have been learning how to celebrate the harvest in the middle of His planting and growing season. But it wasn’t always that way.

When I first arrived in the waiting room, my spirit was completely shattered. I carried the remains of my dreams, my hopes, and my heart in a little bag of ashes in my hands, praying that somehow when my name was called, the healer behind the door could put them back together. Confidence was a word that didn’t even exist in my vocabulary. Not confidence in my ability to survive. Not confidence in God’s ability to heal. Not even confidence in the prayers that desperately fell from my lips. But that’s where I learned my first big lesson in the waiting room –

The One True Healer doesn’t stand behind the wall, having our name called when it’s our scheduled time for a breakthrough. He sits with us in the waiting room and holds us through the break.

Sometimes this looks like gut-wrenching cries pouring out of us as we hold our broken pieces. Sometimes this looks like falling into His arms when we simply cannot stand anymore. And sometimes this looks like angry fists beating against His chest as we release what we cannot hold inside any longer. Whatever it looks like, He holds space for it as He gently, lovingly, faithfully, and unwaveringly holds us. He meets us there, no matter our condition, no matter our appearance, no matter our past or mistakes, and He welcomes us to come just as we are and fall into Him. This space has a place and a purpose in the waiting room. This space belongs. This space matters to Him because He uses our childlike raw, vulnerable, and unfiltered expression of our heart to begin the process of pouring His love and peace into those deeply broken places. This is where the waiting room journey so often begins.

But I think one of the neatest experiences of God’s waiting room has been the other children, His children, that He has continually brought into my space to remind me who He is and who I am in Him. You see, God found me in my brokenness, and He held me together with an indescribable love, but I still held back much of my heart, unsure if I could trust Him with it all; especially uneasy about trusting Him with this, my little bag of ashes. After all, this little bag held everything that I cared about. Everything. And I’d never before let someone else hold it. So, I hesitated. I gripped my little bag ever-so-tight. And I waited. I sat against the wall and I simply watched.

I listened as the other children explored the waiting room with Jesus. I tuned in when they opened up their hearts and shared their stories. I watched as they boldly played and celebrated in the wait, confident in the nature of the Healer and what was to come. And as I observed, I began to hear Him speak through them… You, my child, are deeply known. You are deeply loved. And you are safe in this place. Lean into my heart. Lean into my voice. Trust me in the wait and let me show you who I am and how much I love you. And this is where I learned my next lesson in the waiting room –

Radical heart transformations take place, right here, in the wait. God teaches us, grows us, heals us, and brings us deeper into our relationship with Him. If we sit idle, quiet, and unmoving, we miss the invitation to explore His heart. We miss the beautiful journey of the wait. And sometimes we run the risk of missing the purpose of the wait altogether.

In my time in the waiting room, I begin to imagine a tiny seed, faithfully planted and watered. As I sat, I wondered how that little seed would know when it was time to emerge, time to break out of its protective shell and allow itself to begin to stretch and grow. This was truly how I began to see myself. Warm, protected, and safe, planted but not ready to push beyond it yet. But then I could hear God’s whisper. I could feel His gentle nudge. It was time to crack open, to emerge, to extend beyond my safe and comfortable space and to trust Him in the growing. It was time to be vulnerable again and let Him fully in. It was time to let go of my tight grip on the controls and fall into His love… completely. And this, right here, became a huge turning point in the waiting room for me. Why? Because once we allow His outpouring to fully submerge us in His presence, His love, His grace, and His peace, everything begins to look and feel completely different. This is when the deep, deep healing process and transformation truly begins – when we take His hand and partner with Him to move towards it.

But, as I would soon find out, knowing that it’s time to emerge and push towards deep healing doesn’t always mean that the growing will be easy. Knowing that it’s time to begin the process of letting go and falling into Jesus doesn’t always mean that that the healing journey itself will be without discomfort or pain. You may not know this, but when a seed first breaks out of its protective shell, it is the most vulnerable time of its entire existence. And as I read those words one day, I felt them. All of them. Vulnerable. Scared. Shaking courage. Doubt. I imagined myself climbing back into my shell, staying against the wall and simply observing, forever. But then I heard His beautiful, reassuring, and loving voice whisper again … “You are safe. My child, I will never leave you or abandon you. You are my heart. Allow yourself to deeply root in me and I will bring you through.”

And then He led me to this life-changing verse and I learned to cling to its promise when the waves threatened to drown me; when the doubts began to steal my strength and hope:

For the authority of her faith rested in the One who made the promise, and she tapped into His faithfulness. Hebrews 11:11 TPT

Yes, this was the turning point in my healing. This is where I began to truly grow – In my spirit. In my heart. In my journey. In my strength. In my healing. In Him. I made the life-changing choice that I wanted to partner with Jesus to walk through this season, and this life, together. Hand-in-hand, like a small child, I would push off the wall, trusting Him and leaning into His guidance. I would put all my faith in the Promiser, all my eggs in His one basket, and I would simply learn to grow day-by-day in Him.

And so, I did… just that. Over and over, at first. I would crawl back into the shell and He would patiently and lovingly encourage me to re-emerge. Again and again, I would let go of the reigns, dust off, refocus, and start over. But then, the most beautiful thing began to happen – I found myself slowly moving from observing – to shakily walking – to absolutely running with Him!

It’s a process, ebbing and flowing as we grow, but here’s the key… it’s also a promise. And He will faithfully see you through.

Speaking of running, have you ever heard that Bible verse that says, “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus?” I’m sure you’ve heard it many times before. It is a pretty popular one. But I wonder if you’ve ever read through to the next verse? Hebrews 12:2 TPT –

We look away from the natural realm and we focus our attention and expectation onto Jesus who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith’s perfection.

I mention this verse because it was right here, as I began to run with Jesus in my waiting season, that I learned the beautiful truth about faith. I feel like it’s no coincidence that running, perseverance, and the birthing of faith are mentioned back-to-back in these verses. To be honest, I think sometimes we overcomplicate faith. We turn it into a battle of willpower. We reason that if we can force it into fruition, thereby controlling it, it will be perfected; that when we stand in the waiting room and feel anything but faith – ie. doubt, anxiety, anger, or fear – we lack something and fall short of expectations, perfectly demonstrating our failure as a believer. But just as that wave of shame began to pour over me, God began to remind me of a powerful lesson that He had been walking me through lately: The waiting room was designed to hold raw, authentic feelings, and bold exploration of the wait holds the key to powerful, life-changing discoveries.

Faith, as He showed me, is meant to grow naturally, a beautiful byproduct of our time and relationship with Him. And we are allowed, or rather invited and encouraged, to let Him lead us into faith’s perfection little-by-little as He guides us through. It’s a gift of the process. A gift of the journey. A gift that will bloom all on its own as we build our lives with Him. And this is exactly what He began to grow deep inside of me as I simply and beautifully focused on exploring His heart and growing in Him.

You see, when we stand in the waiting room and make the choice to give Jesus our process, trusting Him in the unknowns, we are choosing to run the race with perseverance. Perseverance, as we know, is like muscle. It’s a choice. We can flex it, build it, and use it – or not. Where faith is the natural by-product of our relationship with God and not something that we are meant to control by means of willpower, perseverance is an actual decision that we need to make in the process. It’s our side of coming into an agreement with our Father to choose to reach out and take His hand; to focus on Him, the Promiser, instead of what we can reason through with our natural minds; to choose to push through our wait by clinging to His heart and His plan even when the evidence of the promise may not be clear or immediate. It’s choosing to draw ever closer to Him and our relationship with Him, even in the most difficult or vulnerable places and spaces.

And it’s not always simple, pretty, or clean. Perseverance, the word itself, means to endure; to push through, even in the face of challenges or delay. In fact, in my experience, it’s not even a journey that can always be made without time spent falling face down in the dirt, growing frustrated, impatient, or confused. And God does not hold those moments against us. There is no shame in this space, just love. But then, it’s taking that next step anyways; choosing to dust off, refocus on Jesus, and lean in again.

And when we do make the choice, when we flex the muscle of perseverance and grow, we begin to see the incredible evidence of His faithfulness and His goodness in our process, in our journey, and in our lives. And my friend, it’s undeniable. His tangible presence absolutely pours over us as we grow in Him. And this experience of running with Him not only births but continues to grow a faith inside of us that is not based on tradition or religion, willpower or force, but rather, the divine and beautiful truth that is continually revealed and experienced in the process – Who He is and just how much He loves us. Again, it grows naturally. A beautiful byproduct of a life walked hand-in-hand with Him.

And suddenly, right there in that waiting room, I looked down at my feet and found myself, wait for it…. dancing, fully confident in the nature of my Healer! My spirit had been moved from utter brokenness to a place that I could have never imagined when I first walked into this waiting room, clinging to my bag of ashes. I felt hope and joy. I was completely unreserved in my celebration, excitedly awaiting the fulfillment of His promises. I grew bold in my prayers because I unquestioningly believe that bold prayers, whispered into the ears and heart of my Father, would bring about bold miracles! I began to actively prepare for the next chapter to unfold because I had faith that the One who had brought me through the wait would be the One that walks me through the breakthrough.

And in reflection, I can see that this season, this growing, this waiting, has revealed, healed, and prepared me for what is to come. My character has been challenged, painfully and uncomfortably at times, and I have grown. My relationship with Him has been nurtured, watered, cared for, and has beautifully exploded into an indescribable mutual love that propels me into my calling. My heart has been radically transformed and I am ready for wherever He calls me to go. His vision for my life is where I am aligned and anchored. I am ready. I am unshakably His. And He knows it. I can feel His pride and joy, His delight in me and my growth. I can feel His love pour from His heart and His voice. And I can feel the safety of His hand as He takes mine. And we walk out of the waiting room and into my next chapter… together.

Yes, my friend, the waiting room was made for childlike behavior JUST LIKE THIS.

I have wept, screamed, grown angry, stomped my feet, and fallen down more times that I could count. But I have also grown, explored, walked, ran, and eventually… danced! We are not meant to sit still in the waiting room, heads-down, quiet and reserved until our number is announced. We are called to walk hand-in-hand with Him as He works through us in the in-between.

Can you give Him your heart, right now, in the wait?

Can you hope in Him?

God once challenged me in the waiting room, “Daughter, can you sit in the space of growing at my pace?”

Can you choose to not take back the reigns,

Not run ahead,

Not make the way yourself,

But rather, take my hand, walk with Me, go at My pace, and trust Me with it all?

To be honest, I wasn’t sure at the time that I could meet Him there in that challenge, but as I grew and reflected on this season, I began to understand why His question, and my decision to lean into His guidance, was so important. There was so much to learn in that room. So much to explore. So much to heal. And so much to grow. And now I confidently answer, “Yes, God. Yes, I can. And yes, I will.” I do not want to run ahead. I do not want to let go of your hand. I do not want to take back the reigns. I want to sit in this space of growing, sit in the waiting room with You, and walk through it – all of it – together.

The waiting room was created, my friend, for perfectly authentic childlike behavior. Whatever that looks like for you today, come to Him with an unreserved and unfiltered heart and let Him hold you, heal you, walk with you, run with you, or dance with you through the absolutely beautiful waiting room season. Be bold. Be wild. Be untamed. Be authentic. Be the perfectly loved you… and let Him meet you there and see you through.

Listen for His whisper. He will always guide the way.

Blessings on the journey ahead!

Shannon

If you enjoyed this post, you may like my book, A Time to Dance: Chasing Joy in Difficult Seasons. You can buy it today on Amazon by clicking the image below.