by REBECCA STEVENS
“Whoever is patient has great understanding, but the one who is quick-tempered displays folly.” (Proverbs 14:29 NIV)
James, the brother of our Lord, admonishes us to confess our sins and shortcomings to one another. Well, fasten your seat belts, brothers and sisters, because I am about to confess my head off!
One morning, not so long ago, I had an unusually long and boring list of chores and errands to accomplish. I convinced myself that, with the proper planning, I could get all of my chores done in fairly short order and then move on to doing something more enjoyable – which would have included just about anything else. Nevermind consulting God about what His plans for my day might have looked like. That would be my major Confession Number One.
Confession Number Two: I just love checking chores off of my to-do list. I get an unholy thrill out of it. Some people need illegal substances to get the rush that a to-do list with plenty of check marks gives me. Yep, that would be my signature brand of crazy.
Confession Number Three: My sinful and foolish pride always somehow manages to convince me that I’m so dang smart and resourceful that I could dip all of the water out of Lake Norman with a teaspoon if only I can devise one of my infamous schemes for getting the job done more efficiently.
Confession Number Four: God help the poor unsuspecting soul who, usually through no fault of their own, gets in my way when I’m on a mission to slay my to-do list. They’d have better luck with a grizzly bear that hadn’t eaten in a month.
One of the many items on my to-do list on this particular morning was to purchase a restaurant gift card for a friend. On my master plan, I allowed all of about 2.8 seconds to accomplish this task since the restaurant in question was directly across the street from the store where I intended to complete my first task of picking up an online grocery order.
I really should have known that my careful plans were about to go straight up in smoke when I rounded a corner and discovered a long line of other customers waiting ahead of me to pick up their orders. But, I remained undaunted. Surely, I’d make up for lost time since my next destination was right across the street.
But, when I got to the restaurant, I discovered to my horror that the doors were locked. “No worries,” I reasoned. ”This location has a drive-thru, so I can just grab the gift card at the window and be back on my way.” At the ordering kiosk, I informed the disembodied voice that all I needed was a gift card. She very politely answered that I would need to come inside to get it and that I would need to wait until the line at the drive-thru died down enough to allow her to leave the window long enough to walk up front and let me in. She apologized for the inconvenience and explained that her co-worker who was scheduled to work the front counter had just called in sick.
Did I offer understanding and encouraging words to this poor harried woman who was obviously trying to make the best of a bad situation? Hardly! With a roar of my engine, I jerked out of the drive-thru line and drove off in a huff – only to discover that I had pickled myself in a no man’s land of trying to find another exit out of the parking lot.
Once I finally extricated myself and got back on the road, I remembered that another location of the restaurant in question was across town but not too far from the next stop on my chore list. That would work.
I stormed into restaurant number two like an outlaw about to shoot up a saloon. I snatched up a gift card from the display rack, slammed it down on the counter and fairly screamed at a young associate to load it with the amount of my gift. She stared up at me as if I’d just asked her to perform brain surgery on a wildebeest.
Finally, she turned and sashayed back toward the kitchen calling for someone named Delores. After what seemed like an eternity, the young associate finally resurfaced and announced that I would need to wait for Delores to come out of the restroom to load my card. So much for my winsome Christian witness. It was only by the grace of God that I didn’t have a stroke. I slammed the gift card down and stalked out.
But, God is good. He is so patient, even when I’m anything but. He waited for my little tantrum to subside before whispering in His still small voice to try the pharmacy that was less than a mile from my home. Sure enough, I found the gift card that I’d just spent the last hour of my life furiously chasing all over town right under my nose. Talk about letting me stew in my own juices. Message received, Dear Lord, message received.
Hopefully, I learned an important lesson that morning. God often wants us to cool our heels and practice a little patience while we’re waiting for His (not our own) marching orders. I discovered that I can try to do things my way and make a miserable mess or I can practice a little patience, surrender my to-do list to God and spare myself a boatload of stress and frustration. Seems like a pretty obvious choice, doesn’t it?
Prayer: DearLord, thank you for laughing with me and never at me whenever I slow down enough to catch a glimpse of myself through Your eyes. Please forgive my foolish and sinful pride that makes me think that I know better than you how to order and live out my days. Teach me to exercise just a fraction of the patience with others and with my circumstances that you so lovingly shower on me.
