The Waiting Place

In this life, we do a lot of waiting. Author Eileen Button takes the "waiting places" in life and gleans valuable insights into the blessings that can be found in those places. I love how the book started with an excerpt from "Oh the Places You'll Go!" by Dr. Seuss:

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grin on for miles across weirdiish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place . . .

With wit and charm, Eileen Button warms the reader's heart with her brilliant writing style and transparency. Through each page you'll feel her heart and when you can't meet up with your best friend for a cup of coffee, you'll find that reading "The Waiting Place" will do just fine. The book is written as short essays, or maybe as excerpts of a memoir of sorts. All of the stories within the book are personal stories of Eileen's life and written from her perspective. There are stories that will make you laugh, make you cry, and have you on the edge of your seat. You'll be strengthened by her strength and she'll tell you that it's God behind it all. One of my favorite paragraphs was off of page 136 and 137:

"Here's what I believe: God doesn't always save us from our brokenness. He lets us decide, even with our clouded capacities, what we will do. Sometimes we call on God, and He seems to answer. Sometimes we call on God, and a deafening silence fills the line."

"Sometimes the story ends without the hope-filled conclusion. People die. Marriages end. Depression wins . . . Sometimes life as we knew it, and had dared to dream it, is destroyed with no second chances. It feels like God looks away, tragedy sneaks in, and we spend the rest of our lives haunted by the ensuing fallout. There are times when we are left only with what feels like the wrong ending. When we listen closely enough, we think we hear the angels cry."

This is simply a "good read." It will make you think. It will make you reflect. And hopefully it will cause you to change your perspective of life to take full advantage of "The Waiting Place."

*I was provided this book for free through the Thomas Nelson BookSneeze Program in exchange for my unbiased review.