The Waiting Room

As we get older and older and, then a little older, most of us find ourselves spending more time than we ever imagined in a doctor's office.  And, maybe the truth is we spend more time in the waiting room than the treatment room!  Flannery O'Connor has a great story about a woman whose judgmental spew incited a small riot in the waiting room.  ("Revelation")  The stories we might be able to tell about our own observations may not be as entertaining as her story, but there are, nonetheless, still sights to see and people to remember.     

If we are unfortunate enough to come and go enough to and from that place, we find ourselves seeing a view of the world we did not know existed.  It is the gathering place of a community of people who are struggling to know wholeness again.  It is also a place where people begin to realize they are connected to others who share some measure of suffering.  Unexpected conversations break the monotonous tone of the music floating around in the room.  Acts of kindness and caring are seen and words of concern and hope are heard.    

The more we frequent those waiting rooms filled with hurting folks, the more we begin to realize it is a sacred place.  The Spirit of Christ is surely in that place as people begin to open their own lives up to strangers who are recognized as fellow travelers on the road. The brokenness so apparent in that place does not have the power to destroy hope, erase smiles, and separate us from the presence of the Holy Christ who promised to be with us in all the places of this earth which, of course, includes those filled waiting rooms.