Patiently Waiting

"I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry." Psalm 40:1

Isn't the term patiently waiting an oxymoron or something? The promise of the Lord is wonderful. He promises us that when we wait on Him He will lift us up. I find myself being extremely patient and longsuffering in some situations and in others I cannot wait one more moment. There doesn't necessarily seem to be a rhyme or reason for why my patience is so challenged in one area of my life and seemingly bottomless in another. This whole Psalm 40 is full of some splendid illustrations of many aspects of our lives but right out of the chute I have to address patience.

They say never to pray for patience or the Lord may answer your prayer and give you an opportunity to exercise some. Maybe valid advice, but we have to deal with our impatience. You see that is the real problem. Not patience, but impatience. You say what is the difference? Well besides being opposites there is a very important subtle perspective difference between addressing patience and impatience. Compare it to morality and immorality. The morality problem in our culture is really an immorality problem. We seem to want to address being moral without addressing stopping being immoral. Likewise we talk about patience but not about impatience. What is the root of impatience? Self-centeredness.

Uh oh, no wonder we want to talk about how maybe we could be a little more patient. Easier than dealing with the problems that lead us to impatience. Such as self-centeredness. What are the things that try out patience and bring out our impatience? Uhhhhh.... LINES for one. Don't you just hate long lines? Why am I so impatient in line? Why is the guy ahead of me have such a complicated order, or why when I get to the front of the line at the bank do most of the tellers take a break? You see... it is very crowded in the center of the universe. No room there except for one. On a busy day (almost every day) that would be me. Aha, I can tell that I am already in conflict with some of you, because I am in your spot.

Imagine how God sees it. After all He is the center of the universe, deserves to be so and everybody is trying to vie for His spot. By the way, if you want to be in the center of the universe you have to sit on the throne that goes with being the King of the Universe. Maybe at least until I get my turn, or get my banking done, or get my order placed. After all I have places to go, things to do and people to see. Don't they know that?

Imagine how God sees it. After all He is the center of the universe, deserves to be so and everybody is trying to vie for His spot. By the way, if you want to be in the center of the universe you have to sit on the throne that goes with being the King of the Universe. Maybe at least until I get my turn, or get my banking done, or get my order placed. After all I have places to go, things to do and people to see. Don't they know that?

I must address another problem I am having with my impatience. COMPUTERS. Why are they so slow? I can think faster than this thing can move. What is up with that? It's not like it has a decision to make or something. Or like it knows that I am patiently waiting for many seconds. I'm certain that our impatience issues are getting worse with everything accessing faster and faster. Why is this happening? Technology advancement. Naaah, I will tell you. The faster stuff goes the more money somebody makes. If that is true then why the long lines? (lol) Let me confess something here. I am most impatient with mine and other's impatience. Ever try to be patient with impatience?

I am going to sign off before something happens on my computer that I don' have the patience to handle. Hmmmm.....Pastor Fred

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