Life has taught us that ‘good things come to those who wait.’ The Psalmist reechoes this sentiment with the line, “I waited, I waited for the Lord and He stoops down to help me”. There is yet another life’s saying that admonishes that ‘a patient dog eats the fattest bone’ Unfortunately our generation has come up with ways to speed things up so that we don’t have to wait anymore. Remember the Concord plane? Yes that was meant to cut our travelling time so drastically that one could take breakfast in New York and lunch in the United Kingdom. The speed of our inter-net services has moved from dial-up to DSL to High speed to Comcast, to Xfinity to God knows what is in the works. Need I say more? Our generation is loaded with instant products: instant tea, instant coffee, instant banking, yes instant everything. I cannot wait for the day I will deposit and withdraw money from the bank without leaving the comfort of my room. After all, you can do all your shopping on line and have them delivered to your door without leaving your couch.
Tell me, how did you feel when you had to wait for your doctor? Don’t you wish there was a doctor’s drive through office? I would like that. Or even to have a drive in Church? Oh Church! We just want to rush in and rush out; after all it is a day of rest. Right?
But then life has taught us that there are certain things we just can’t rush. For instance a child has to be in the womb for nine months before his or her birth, else we will not be happy if it comes out before its time. What about waiting for bus, for train or for your flight? No matter how we want things done yesterday, we must wait for certain things to be done today. Patience in this case is golden and at times there might be no substitute for it. And you know what? We have to be patient with ourselves, with our spouse, with our children, with others and with our God. The work of creation is on going and we must be patient because God is not done with us yet. Yes, patient seems to be the lost virtue. I am tired of hearing people say, you know I have no patience, I can’t put up with this or with that person. But stop. Think. Are you a very easy person to live with? You think! If people in your life did not put up with you idiosyncrasies could you imagine how your life would have turned out? So be patient, for good things come to those who wait. If you are patient good things will surly come to you. This indeed is a great lesson of life.
My mother always told me patience was a virtue and she was so right. Rushing your life away and being in a hurry only adds to stress. Be patient and savor each and every day and be glad you have it. That includes going to Church and praying. Yes good things will come to those who wait. The greatest thing that we await with patience is seeing God face to face when our time comes.
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