The waiting room

Have you ever been at that place where you have done everything right and but you can’t see results?

That has been my experience over the last six months. I consider myself to be hardworking, focused, and efficient—I get it done on time. However, my efforts lately have not yielded the results I have gotten used to seeing.

I have been praying, fasting, and asking God what the issue is. The answer I got was, “You are in the waiting room.”

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As I thought about this “waiting room,” I could only think about being at a hospital. After nine months of pregnancy, a woman is wheeled into the delivery room—family members sit expectantly in the waiting room for the news of the new life. Although this moment is usually beautiful, the anxiety of waiting is similar to someone undergoing surgery.

However, the waiting room is different from “the hallway moment” I wrote about this previously.  In “Your Hall Way Moment,” you are closer to your breakthrough; you are invited into the room to make a case. With the waiting room, you have no access and no power over what is happening in the room or what you get in the final analysis.

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In the waiting room, you only have an ounce of control over your emotional responses. You can respond to stress by pacing the floor, tapping your feet anxiously, leaving the room in search of alternative answers or distractions, or sitting calmly and focusing on God’s character, faithfulness, and glory.

There are many folks out there in their waiting room. I wish I could say you will get some good news today, this week, or in the next hour. However, I can definitely say that it is in the hands of the Divine.

I am still waiting; I have been stressed and paced and have been tempted to leave the room and seek an alternative reality. Nonetheless, I am praying and praising right now, knowing that “all things work for the good of them that love the Lord.”

The Waiting Room requires Patience and Trust! Hold on! It will all work out!!!

• Mrs. Leymah Gbowee is a Nobel Peace Prize Winner and writes for National Daily Newspaper