Job 16:1-19:29
1 Cor 16:1-24
Psalm 40:1-10
Proverbs 22:1
I find it hard to be patient. I find it harder still to be patient while under duress. I remember when I was young, we drive five hours into the mountains on vacation. Problem was, i was easily car sick - and violently so. And on those trips, bad enough during the first four hours when the road was flat and straight, but the last hour was up the mountain on a zig-zag road, after which I'd be green as the fir trees. It was during those trips I learned two things: why dogs stuck their heads out of windows, and how to ask, repeatedly, "Are we there yet?". I did NOT learn patience.
The psalmist talks about patience, about waiting on the Lord, who turns when He hears our cries; who rescues us. But in the story of job we see a God who acts in His time, leaving us to cling to the conviction our "redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God." Sometimes it is merely challenging to be patient; other times, it is excruciatingly difficult. But patience is key - when we wait on Him, we are lifted out of the mud and mire, and set on rock, with a new song in our mouths.
You know what I find increasingly difficult? Waiting to see that my kids will be fine - that they will come through middle school and high school and college ok, that they will have good jobs, that they will have good, lasting marriages and, most of all, that they will get to know God. My eldest is a senior in high school and will be off to college soon - how I wish I knew for certain all this was going to turn out well for her, and for her two younger brothers in turn. Lord, help me learn to be patient, for "Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord." It has been a life long lesson...help me to keep learning it. Take me from "impatient" to "I'm patient".
No comments:
Post a Comment