Patience Produces

Read

Romans 5:3-5 (KJV) And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

What it is speaking to me:

I hate waiting. As children, we hate waiting and we are generally terrible at it. Then we grow up, and I know that you all got better, but there are still times I really hate waiting. I find solace in the fact that I am in good company as a fellow wait-hater. One of the great heroes of the cinema, Inigo Montoya famously grumbles in The Princess Bride that he too, "hates waiting."

It is hardest, often, to wait when things are going wrong.

It is one thing to have to wait a year for the next Marvel movie; it is another thing to be in a waiting room while a loved one is under the knife.

The worst part of waiting for me is that it often makes me feel helpless. If I had the ability to fix what's wrong, I would have already. So if I am stuck waiting, it means it is outside of my control to make it happen. I feel like the waiting is wasted, unproductive time. I suspect the Apostle Paul was similar in his personality. He doesn't strike me as a man who liked to be unproductive or wait on others to get things done.

Maybe that is why he wrote to the church in Rome that patience DOES matter, it DOES produce something. Patience is part of a sequence. It begins with trial, moves to patience, then to character and hope. Patience is in the middle. It is the middle that produces the end. Character and hope are not small things, they are BIG things. They are produced by patience.

So next time you are struggling to be patient, try to remind yourself that it IS producing something. Something great. The waiting produces the win.

What is it saying to you?

Are you like Inigo?

When was there a situation where patience paid off?

What are we going to do about it?

Identify a difficult process you're in and write the next word in the sequence: what is patience producing in you right now?