It was 3 am, and I couldn’t sleep. The never ceasing sound of my neighbor in the tent next zipper over typing vigorously on her keyboard pierced the night air in a way that stirred up some serious frustrations. Laying there I reluctantly bit my justified tongue and asked “Lord, what are you trying to teach me in this moment?” His reply – “Patience”
Lesson #1 of the World Race – be careful what you ask God for… Just kidding.
This was day number 6 (out of 323) of my world race… I was in for a long haul.
What I didn’t know then was that this lesson, and attitude towards it, would shape much of the change I would make in myself over the next eleven months. This word “patience” guided me through some of the toughest times I would experience over the race, as I’m sure it will through my life.
Patience is something that I have never really developed prior in my life. Being an American, where much of our lives are built on this “I want it and I want it now” mentality, I’m sure you can sympathize with this struggle. When friends show disrespect we lash back; when someone cuts us off we curse them; we get rid of the people that slow us down; we get married before we know ourselves and have kids before we know our partner; we even dedicate our lives to careers and choices made by ourselves when we were immature teenagers entering college (because starting over takes to long and is too much work). This list is much unfinished, but you get the point.
I want to share a verse that displays patience to the upmost degree: one that depicts one of the truest examples of patience that I have found.
“In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of Egypt… [Solomon] began to build the temple of the Lord.” – 1 Kings 6:1
After the creator of the Heavens and the Earth delivered his chosen people from the slavery imposed to them by the Egyptians, He waited nearly five-hundred years for them to honor him with a dwelling place. Talk about some major patience!
If I waited five hundred seconds in the drive-thru to get my burger I’d expect it to be free – even thirty second for the barista at Starbucks to pour my coffee commonly serves this point. Waiting in line at Target gives us sweaty palms – even though now it may be for different reasons. Waiting five years to be honored by your children and/or spouse would lead to more divorces and abandoned children, and twenty-seven minutes to cook that Digorno pizza leads you to forgo preheating the oven or even towards opting for the disgraceful “Hot and Ready” from Lil Caesars on your way home instead.
Why is patience so hard for us?
Back in December God placed it in my heart to spend the next two years of my life in grad school – something I have found very hard not to look forward too and plan for. When I return home I’ll be nearing twenty-six years old and as single as ever (I think a dog is in my near future) and I won’t be chasing my kids around the house like my parents were at my age. I surely won’t have my house on Maple Street, and my days will be full of math and more books rather than on a career and income.
But if the Creator of it all can wait that long for man to build him a home, then surely I [we] can wait for him to build me one. If He can gracefully show patience to us day in and day out, then surely we can show it to him, one another, and even to ourselves.
Patience – The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting upset or angry.
I ask myself, “How am I accepting delay, trouble, or suffering today without getting upset or angry at God, others, myself, or Lisa?” (Lisa: My lovely friend who suffered much early on in the race from an abnormal sleep and blog schedule, whom commonly finds this story hilarious – much to my distress). Typically my answer is unsatisfactory, but none the less it’s one that directs me towards a more appropriate and honorable set of thoughts and actions.
I challenge you to ask and answer the same question for yourself when you find yourself tested in any way. I can just about guarantee you it will change your perception.
Spending all day everyday with anywhere between five and thirty-five other individuals is something that at times I would not wish upon my worst enemy. It’s not my first time feeling this way. In college I lived with anywhere between one – four other roommates. But when they got on my nerves I could just go to my room and cool down. Here, where your room is the tent placed two feet away from the “room” homing the person you’re trying to get away from, you don’t always have that luxury. Patience has regularly came in handy.
Patience has kept me, or at least some of my peers, alive on this trip (a joke comparable to that of my future dog). It has served me well, and is the first lesson I share when I’m asked about what I’ve learned on this trip.
Ask yourself “How am I being patient this year, month, week, day, minute, and second?” And watch how it changes your life.
For the first time in my life I’m okay with holding my breath, biting my tongue, and even fully trusting in Gods true sovereignty in my life. Patience has even taught me grace, peace, gentleness, and many other fruits. I’m sure it can and will do the same for you.
See you in a few weeks.
Btw – I plan on living by myself when I get home.
