Learning Patience

(Photo cred: Hamed Saber "Tehran Traffic Jam")

(Originally written for Douglas County Publishing: Pastor's Meditation April 4, 2017)

“Let’s go!  Let’s go!  Let’s go!” shouted my not-even-2-years-old daughter from the backseat as we were driving around Holland, Michigan at the start of our vacation last week.  As I heard those words, a smirk came to my face, but I was slightly disappointed.  My disappointment was not towards her, but myself.  She didn’t come up with those commands for the drivers around us that can’t hear her on her own.  No, they came from me.  She had heard me say those words among others throughout our trip when drivers “got in my way” or were moving “too slow.” 

I can tell you my excuses.  I grew in the south suburbs of Chicago, which has its own city driving style.  From the time I got my license, I have felt comfortable to swoop across four lanes of interstate traffic without slowing down or taking one lane at a time.  The speed limit on those highways is the speed you go if you want to cause an accident because you’re the only one driving that slow.  Going past a patrolman at 10mph over the speed limit doesn’t even worry me.  In that world, “Let’s go!” is a polite thing to say to or about other drivers.

But I know better.  I know that just because everyone else does it, doesn’t mean I should.  Being a young dad, it’s one of my first lessons to know just how much my daughter picks up from what she sees and hears.  My impatience—my always wanting to get where I’m supposed to be as fast as possible, always thinking about the finish of one task, but at the same time always thinking ahead to what’s the next objective—my impatience is not just a trait I don’t want to pass along, but it is something Scripture warns about.

A quick search on my Bible computer program brought up many stories of impatience—Sarah getting tired of not having any children and allowing Abram to sleep with her servant Hagar; Esau giving up his birthright to Jacob because of his hunger; the younger son in the Parable of the Prodigal Son not waiting for his inheritance.  If you read through those accounts, you will find that they do not end with a happy conclusion—the impatient people are always left wanting more.

So too was the case with the Israelites in the wilderness.  We read in Numbers 20 of them coming to a place where there was no water.  The people grumbled against Moses, “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord!  Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle?  And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place?  Moses and Aaron met with the Lord in the tent of meeting, and God said, “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water.  So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.”

What did Moses do?  Having gathered them together, giving them insight as to what was going to happen, Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.  End of story, God blessed them, right?  No, actually.  Numbers 20:12 tells us God’s response, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”

Perhaps the people’s impatience had worn on Moses.  But maybe even he was impatient with the trek that God was taking them on.  It was hard, it was a wilderness, it was a journey and a time in which they must trust the Lord.  God’s instruction was for him to hold the staff, show leadership, and by the promise of God, only speak to the rock, telling it to give water.  But he hit it twice—for an impatient person, it’s not enough just to talk, we must do, we must make something happen, and that was disbelieving in God’s holy plan.

Not every situation that we enter and want to move things forward means that we are engaging in an ungodly impatience.  There’s also a difference between competition, in which an individual or team might hurry things, and impatience.  But if our impatience in our normal routines or our activities comes with malice and anger, if it comes with unloving thoughts for another person, if it comes with a disbelief towards God and his ability to rightly and justly execute his plan, then our impatience is likely sinful. 

That’s why I don’t want my daughter to imitate my impatient driving vocabulary.  That’s why I have to examine myself, confess my impatience and intolerance, and ask God to help me actively trust him.  That’s why I have to listen to what God has to tell me and what he has to show me when my focus becomes so much on my tasks and my objectives. 

I’m guessing I’m not alone in being an impatient person.  What areas of your life is God inviting you to slow down, to watch for him, to listen for his will rather than always planning ahead for ourselves?  Let us heed the words of our Lord and Savior, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,” that sums up my understanding of impatience, “and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).