Hurry Up and Give Me Patience, Lord!
By: Pastor Brian Horrobin
The fruit of patience is a lot like a clean toilet: everyone benefits from it but nobody wants to put in the effort it takes to have it.
My twin brother and I were booked on a flight back to Detroit from Indianapolis back in the fall but our flight fell on a day that had a freak snowstorm, which set a new record for that date. Air traffic in the Midwest was crippled and ground to a halt.
First, we sat for an extra hour in the terminal after an initial delay of 30 minutes. Then there was another 90 minutes on the tarmac waiting for the “all clear” from Detroit. Then the snow started in Indianapolis requiring the plane to be de-iced.
As I sat there squirming in my window seat, my bladder was filling and my patience was draining out. When we finally arrived in Detroit we hurried with our bags out of the terminal, only to miss the parking lot shuttle by mere seconds. More waiting.
Bumper to bumper traffic on the interstate slowed our return to Windsor. Our lesson in patience was made compete as we sat in the slowest line at the Canadian border trying to clear customs.
James, the brother of Jesus had this to say in James 1:4: “But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
It would seem rather obvious to conclude that the only way to acquire patience is to have ample opportunity to learn. I guess I need to realize that some of life’s frustrations are really God’s tutorials in disguise.
So what about you? Are you a student working towards a graduate degree in maturity or a life skills dropout?
