God's Waiting Room: The Pathway from Despair to Hope

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. In the Waiting Room with a Silent God

2. In the Waiting Room with a Sovereign God

3. Alone but Accompanied by God in the Waiting Room

4. The World Outside the Waiting Room

5. Rejoicing in God in the Waiting Room

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

About the author

Acknowledgments

To my beloved community, the Morumbi Baptist Church. In these 26 years together, your affection for my family and me have been a source of encouragement during our moments in waiting rooms.

To my two sons, Daniel and Rafael, a unique part of our waiting rooms, in a loving, patient and meaningful way.

To each family in our church, who has shared with us their dilemmas, pains and joys. They encourage us and help us to learn to trust God in the long times of silence and waiting.

To Maurício Zágari, editor of Editora Mundo Cristão. Thank you for being present, encouraging me, giving feedback, improving the texts from beginning to end of each project and helping me grow and write better.

Introduction

In the way of the waiting room

A waiting room can become one of the loneliest places in the world, even if you are surrounded by many people. It could be a waiting room in a hospital, a company where you have gone for a job interview, or even in a restaurant. Regardless of the place, waiting in such a place makes us uncomfortable because biding one’s time isn’t pleasant. Regardless of whether the time spent there is short or long, sad or happy, apprehensive or peaceful, when we are forced to wait for something we often lack virtues such as patience, peace, wisdom, and trust.

How can we survive in a waiting room?

Pedro and Dora ‘s son was admitted to a hospital after suffering a severe seizure. João Carlos had created an app with two of his colleagues, but was betrayed by a supposedly Christian investor, who took over his idea. Joás and Celina waited more than five years to get married, they remained sexually pure for each other, but after three years of marriage, Joás left her to live in a same-sex relationship. Joubert suffered a car accident while driving to a theological seminary, where he would study to dedicate himself to preaching the gospel in the mission field.

Pedro, Dora, João Carlos, Joás, Celina, and Joubert all had something in common. They were all encouraged to pray and heard platitudes like: God has a wonderful plan for your life, Don’t be discouraged, just pray and trust, for God is sovereign and God writes straight using crooked lines. How can we possibly understand that the Lord often leaves us waiting in a cold, lonely room where time seems to have stopped? Is God really sovereign and in control? Is God actually good?

The stories I tell in this book are actual cases that I heard in my pastoral office, although the names have been changed. I have also personally been in God’s waiting room and experienced the shudders that it often provokes. In the fifth month of pregnancy with our second child, the gynecologist advised me and my wife, Teca, that our baby would probably die during childbirth. And it got even worse when the doctor said that both mother and son could die during delivery. That began was five months in a dark waiting room, facing something we weren’t prepared for.

How do you survive in the waiting room when the outlook isn’t good? How can we expect God to answer our prayers when it seems like they are falling on deaf ears? How do we stay positive in the waiting room when all we hear is: Pray and everything will work out, but the everything doesn’t seem to be working out? Where is God in all of this?

While we are in the waiting room, it seems like the clock has stopped, the door doesn’t open and the people around us do not understand our pain. Often, people try to encourage us, but their words only reveal platitudes that do not generate faith, such as Everything will be fine, God is in control or God knows all things. We already know that often things will work out, that the Lord is in control of everything and that he is omniscient. But in what manner and how long do we need to stay in the waiting room before the waiting makes sense?

The prophet Habakkuk¹ had a life-changing experience in a waiting room. Under the rule of King Josiah, he saw the kingdom of Judah prosper, a small revival take place, and eventually the nation collapse. Josiah brought about spiritual, social, and political reforms, sparked a temporary revival in the nation, and became known as a great reformer. But when Jehoahaz, Josiah’s son, took the throne, he disregarded the ways of the Lord, following the paths of sin of his forefathers. This grieved Habakkuk’s soul.

The book of Habakkuk expresses the prophet’s anguish. His nation should have acted as a sign of God’s presence in the world, but the prophet was distressed to see people moving further and further away from the Lord. Religion cloaked in immorality and corruption became the culture of its people. Over time, it was obvious that the population of Judah had grown spiritually cold; it exchanged the God of the covenant for the false gods of the neighboring peoples.

There was violence, impunity of its leaders, a weakening of the justice system, and the wicked triumphed over those who wanted to please God. Although Habakkuk should have prophesied to Judah in the name of God, the pain of the nation’s situation caused the prophet to reverse the communication. He began to interrogate God and no longer acted as a spokesman for the Lord to his people.

In this process of talking to God about himself and about what he saw, the prophet longed for answers and for improvements in the life of the covenant nation. But, contrary to his expectations, he only witnessed the collapse of Judah. In an attempt to resolve the situation, Habakkuk questioned God from the depths of his soul, but God did not seem to hear him.

Nevertheless, the fact that Habakkuk spoke more about the people to God than of God to the people did not diminish the importance of the prophet’s message. Neither does it bring into question the inspiration of his book. The truth is that it translates for people today some of the deepest yearnings of human beings, including that of understanding God when divine ways do not make sense to the human mind. That is why the book of Habakkuk is so crucial for our us today. Written over 25 centuries ago, it contains the revelation of God that sustains us and moves us from despair to hope.

Individuals, families, and churches often find themselves amid unexpected chaos. It could be the chaos of a divorce, an incurable illness, an abruptly destroyed career, a financial failure, or a division in the congregation. Praying is the first suggestion of action. But often it seems like our prayers don’t reach God and waiting on Him becomes a perplexing experience. Sometimes divine answers don’t seem to make any sense. It often feels like God has placed us in a lonely, painful, dark waiting room, the walls of which are adorned with unanswered questions.

The truth is that sitting in the waiting room can create a hardened heart or one full of faith. In it we find a God that we would never discover in a brightly lit party room full of happy people. By applying the writings of the prophet Habakkuk to today’s culture, we discover that God relates personally to his children and leads them from despair to hope, even when the waiting room seems unnerving or just too time consuming. Overcome by agony and fear, the prophet retires to a tower, a waiting room, and challenges us to do the same, believing that God is with us, even if the wait is long. We see that not only is it possible to find God amid the despair, but that he never abandons us in those moments. Although he may appear to be silent, he is always active, for the God of Israel does not sleep. Despite loneliness and fear, Habakkuk lived there without despair, austerely dealing with his questions even though there weren’t apparent answers.

You and I have something in common with Habakkuk, Pedro, Dora, João Carlos, Joás, Celina and Joubert. We all ask questions when we are struggling and facing paths that seem stony and difficult. How can we survive in a world that is going from bad to worse, where evil seems to overcome good, and where the corrupt and the unjust laugh at God and yet the Lord appears to be silent?

In the months between the conversation with the gynecologist and the day our son was born, my wife and I often stared at the clock in the waiting room, fearing the passage of time. After all, every hour that passed brought us closer to the moment when we would know whether the doctor’s prediction would come true. We wavered between confidence and anxiety. What if our baby died? And I avoided asking the question that tormented my soul: And what if my wife dies? We were constantly confronted