What to Do While You're Waiting for News That Might Change Everything

A couple of weeks before a planned family vacation,

Heather Bixler's father called with news that brought

everything to a halt. Colon cancer. The timing wasn't the

greatest. Her family had been looking forward to that vacation.

They'd made plans. And then in one phone call, none of it felt

like what mattered anymore. She described the family as shocked

and overwhelmed, and she said it triggered something she

recognized from other heart stretches in their lives. The

moment when you realize you can't think your way through

what you're feeling, and faith is the only solid thing left.

Her father had watched his own father die of cancer when he was

17 years old. He had since lost three siblings to the same

disease. He knew what the word meant in a way most people don't.

And now it was his turn to hear it. We'll come back to what

Heather found herself doing in the days after that phone call.

But

welcome to daily devotions for busy lives. I'm Bart Leger. If

you're in that kind of waiting today, I want you to know you're

not in it alone. I've been on both sides of this. As a pastor,

I've waited in many hospital corridors with families,

watching the clock with them, praying as we listened for

footsteps in the hall. And I've done my own waiting too. The

kind where the phone is in your hand, and there's nothing left

to do but wait for it to ring. I can tell you the waiting itself

is its own kind of trial. It has a way of stretching time until

an hour feels like almost a week. It's never fun to wait. It can

be downright brutal, especially the kind when the news might

change everything, and there's nothing you can do but wait.

You're in the hospital corridor, holding the phone, willing it to

ring, and dreading it at the same time. You're counting the

hours until the result comes back. You can't fix it from

where you are, and you can't think your way out of it. All

you can do is wait. And the waiting itself feels like it

might be too much. There's a psalm written exactly for this.

The writer is crying out from the bottom rather than

pretending he's fine. He tells God what he's doing while he

waits. Listen to Psalm 130, verses 5 and 6. I am counting on

the Lord. Yes, I am counting on Him. I have put my hope in His

Word. I long for the Lord more than centuries long for the dawn.

Yes, more than centuries long for the dawn. Catch what he's

doing in the waiting. He's counting on the Lord. He's

putting his hope in God's Word, something solid to hold while

everything else is unknown. And he compares himself to a century

waiting for daybreak. A night watchman can't make the sun rise.

He just keeps watching for it, certain it's coming. That's what

waiting on God looks like. It's active.

for the first light. So here's what you can do while you wait.

Bring God your anxiety. Heather did that, lying under a weighted

blanket in an earlier stretch, telling God the truth about

where she was, fear and all. And don't wait alone. Let people in

to the corridor with you. The way God built His people to hold

each other up. Heather didn't write about the diagnosis after

it resolved. She wrote from while she was waiting, before

anyone knew how it would go. She anchored herself in God's

sovereignty, over what she couldn't control, and in His

presence as she walked through what she couldn't control. She

held on to the hope of eternity as the ground everything else

stood on. Psalm 130 was written by someone crying out from the

depths, who said he waited for the Lord more than a century

waits for the dawn. Heather hadn't lost her father yet, and

she didn't know what was coming. She was in the corridor, if you

will, between the news and whatever came next. That's

exactly where God meets people. Here's today's challenge. If

you're waiting on news right now, take a few minutes and tell God

the truth about it out loud if you can. Don't clean it up. You

don't have to. Say the fear. Say what you're afraid of. Say

what's making you anxious and the what-ifs. Then, put your

hope on one thing you know is true about Him, no matter what

happens, no matter how the news goes. Then, text one person and

ask them to wait with you. You don't have to hold that place

alone. Father, you know the ones listening right now who are

waiting on news that could change everything.

If you need prayer today, I'd love to hear from you. You can

leave me a voicemail at DailyDevotionsForBusyLives.com

slash voicemail. I listen to everyone, and it would be an

honor to bring your name before the Lord. Thanks for joining me

on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember, while you wait,

God's already in the room with you, and He hasn't left the

corridor. Come back next time for more encouragement to help

you live grounded in God's truth. Until then, God bless, and have

a great day. Thank you.