Monday, February 8^th, ‘10

All rights reserved © message by Kris Jackson

YOU NEED PATIENCE!

“For you have need of patience…” (Hebrews 10:36)

Yes, I’ll say it again just as the Bible does, “You need patience!” But I didn’t have to tell you that, did I? Impatience isn’t a sign of importance, it’s a sign of intemperance. We tend to think being antsy proves we value time, but everyone else is on a schedule too. So does my time in the checkout line or at the stoplight weigh more than yours, or your than mine? Common sense thinks not. But people get pushy and short because they have an appointment, they have to meet with top brass, they have a plane to catch. Supper will be as cold for me as for you if I don’t hurry home. So take a number and take a seat. Try chillaxin’.

Patience-testing times are part of the curricula. Peter writes, “And add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience…” (2 Pet 1:5,6) Multiple assignments. No one reaches sainthood in a single bound. You have to add then add then add again. Patience is listed with faith. Actually the two are twins, because if your patience runs out it means your faith has ran out. As long as you believe you endure and as long as you can endure you can believe. Impatience ends the shouting match with, “I’m not putting up with this anymore; we’re through!” A couple deep breaths and he or she could put up with a lot more. That’s just the flesh.

No one looks smaller than the impatient. I got passed on the shoulder side the other day by a lady with Pro-Life and Republican bumper stickers as well as a Christian fish symbol. She also passed the four cars in front of me. Great testimony! Of course, when we reached the next stoplight she was a total of four car lengths ahead or about sixty feet. But I’ve made a similar fool of myself at times. You can’t turn a red light green by revving the motor. Bill McGlashen quipped, “Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you, but not in the one ahead”. We live between those two drivers whether in the cubicle at work, or our house couched between the Smiths and Joneses, or our day-timer managing schedules between decision and deadline.

Faith remains cool and calm. It says “praise the Lord” with a smile while others rant to the waiter or checkout attendant. On the other end of the phone, “Could you hold for a minute?” Your answer, “Sure, I’ve got all day, be glad to”. That is faith’s biggest paradox, how on one hand I am accountable to God for stewardship of time and on the other hand I am most Christ-like when I spend the day politely waiting. The fact is, we do have “all day”. God is eternal. The I AM never gets frustrated over postponements. Faith does not frustrate. We have “forever” at our disposal. If this life is all you have then by all means, honk your horn and cut line. But if you believe that all things work together for good to those who love God then you must also believe that He can redeem the few seconds you lost by allowing someone else to be seated first or whatever. We already know the essence of the text but let me say it again in case it was missed, “You need patience!”