By nature, I am not an introspective person. I have to be deliberate and call myself to look honestly at my life, examine my patterns of action and the motives that drive me. This self-examination is sometimes painful, but is always fruitful in giving me perspective on the way I am making decisions and spending my time.
I have spent a lot of introspective time the first weeks of this new year. One of the things that has happened is my lack of patience has come glaringly to the forefront. It seems so trite for me to write, I am not a patient person.
The issue is serious, so serious that I try to flavor it with some humor. In not being patient, I have a lot of company. Several elderly church members were being asked about having lived so long. Gertrude was asked, “why do you think God has permitted you to reach the age of 92?” Without hesitation, she replied, “To test the patience of my relatives.”
Women might make this commentary on the human situation: “Men will wait three hours for the fish to bite, but can’t wait 15 minutes for their wives to get dressed.” I have a lot of company in my lack of patience.
One big truth has become clear for me: being patient recognizes that I am not in control. I need to order my life in the way that reflects that….I am not in control.
God tells us that beautifully through the prophet Ezekiel. God gives the prophet an allegory which pictures a giant eagle taking a sprig, the top-most growing point of a great Cedar, and planting it in another land. Just a sprig; the smallest of branches on the tree. But in time, it grows into a giant Cedar under which the animals find shade, and in whose branches all the birds of the air can build their nest (Ezekiel 17). It’s an allegory of the Jews going back from exile to Palestine, and starting their life over again. This emerging nation became a great nation. It began as a little sprig and grew to a noble Cedar, and it was all God’s doing.
The passage sharing this allegory ends with the declaration “I the Lord bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree…I the Lord have spoken and I will do it.” (l7:24)
It’s not our doing; it’s God’s doing. Being patient recognizes that we are not in control.