I am not sure if I want to pray for patience or not.
Most of us who pray know full well that if you pray for patience, you will have to enter the "Patience is Required" Room.
Two aisles are evident as you enter this room, one that veers to the right, the other, to the left.
Hmm, which one to choose?
Some clues are evident. The aisle to the left is cluttered with broken articles, chips of pottery, disjointed computer components, a rusted carburetor. Farther down the aisle lie scattered pages of paper. Strewn alongside are unfinished paintings, and violins with sprung strings.
Broken dreams perhaps?
The right aisle beckons. The shards of pottery are fewer, there are still pages of paper, but they are stacked neatly and they are filled with words and musical notations. Paintings propped on their easels have dried, magnificent in brilliant color, architectural drawings are rolled in perfect scrolls.
And at the end of the aisle, a newly-refurbished car stands clean and gleaming.
You, dear reader, know where I am going with this.
Impatience destroys. It demands selfishly "My Way!" "My Time!" It leaves behind unfinished business.
I almost fell victim to the unfinished business of impatience this very morning. Coffee in hand, I strove into my office with purpose and resolve. I excitedly sat down to hammer out nuggets of wisdom.
Alas, a battle ensued with Microsoft Windows 10. " My Way! My Time! " I cried. "Nope!" sneered Windows 10. "Not today!" So I grappled, I tangled, I commanded, but to no avail. I muttered unwholesome words, and stormed out of my office, announcing to my dog, who was laying on the hearth in a dead sleep, "I AM THROWING THIS COMPUTER OUT! I am not writing one word on this thing today!
Deep in the recesses of my technological angst a still small voice whispered, "But there are words today for you to write."
I took a deep breath, prayed "Help", and walked slowly back into my office. No nuggets of wisdom remained, nay, no excitement.
Ah, but a new resolve rose up inside of me. As I looked around, I realized I had entered the "Patience is Required Room." Had I taken the aisle to the right where patience has its say, where perseverance fuels active resolve? I heaved a long sigh, wrote my piece and asked the One Who Knows how to navigate the technological challenge my new Windows 10 application posed. Turns out in my resolve, I learned something new. (What a concept).
Mind you, the prose is not the beginning of the next great American novel. But I won a battle with impatience. I walked down the aisle to the right, and placed my page of words on the tall, neat stack in the "Patience is Required" Room.
For today, I ran the race, and patience won. For today, that was enough.
