Uganda be kidding me
patience, I should warn you be careful what you pray for because God can and
will answer you. It just so happened God used Africa to start teaching me this
valuable characteristic. It all culminated when I was in Uganda God would use
this prayer request, and show what it truly means to have patience. Before I go
and tell you how specifically He taught me this month, I’ll first state that
I’ve learned that having patience is also a way to love others and show God’s
love for them.
I’ll openly
admit patience has always been a hard thing for me. I like to be on time and I
like when things go according to plan.
The first way
God taught me patience this month was after I started to reach 100 hours riding
buses in Africa. If you have never had the chance to ride one, I would like to
take this time to encourage you to do so because describing the experience does
not do it justice. This month in Uganda I literally watched as men fought
physically, women were shoved and pinned against the door, children, were
crying all trying to board a bus. Once on board you have people standing in the
isles, strange smells, used radiators banging against your knees, and of course
the usual flat tire experience will occur at least once.
The real
lesson in patience was in my ministry in Uganda. We would be doing ministry all
day, doing door to door evangelism, visiting huts praying over widows,
preaching sermons and the like. We
would often do long 14hr days of ministry and as soon as you think you’ve had
enough and you’re ready to go home your contact asks you to do something like
preach a sermon at the evening service, or go to a few more houses and bless
some people etc. After 3 months of this it started to wear on me, I’ll admit I
often caught myself having a bad attitude towards it initially. I would be
thinking in my head “You have got to be kidding me, or as I say in Uganda….
Uganda be kidding me”.
Then God
really spoke to my heart one day; all of a sudden I just had this profound
respect for the life and ministry of Jesus. I realized I had a bad attitude
about doing ministry for a 14-hour day and Jesus did that and then some. He
poured everything He had out, every day to those who thirsted for the truth and
for a savior. Yet here I was dealing with a small fraction of what He faced on
a daily basis and I thought it best to complain to myself internally. When God
spoke to me and I realized I was being a big baby, and had the wrong attitude I
began to see the bigger picture. God woke me up to the fact I need to continue
to learn patience and not just bear through something but also do it with the
joy of the Lord. He would rather me sit at home than to go do ministry,
represent Him and have a bad attitude inside while doing it. I need to learn to
be more like Jesus, to seek people and go beyond what I think I’m capable of
doing on my own.
I
realized how often I try to do things on my own strength, somehow falling
victim to thinking I did something on my own in addition to what Jesus already
did on the cross. I began to experience not just a huge lesson in patience but
grew deeper in love with Jesus and having a new respect for Him in His life and
ministry.
Lord,
please help me to realize with each new day that I’m nothing more than a mere
man and can do nothing on my own without Jesus speaking and living through me.
Dad, help me to know your deep love for people, and for them to know how much
you love them. Abba, keep my mind and heart focused on you that it may not
stray and become prideful. Increase my patience for people and to see every
opportunity to let your Kingdom be known to here on earth as it is in Heaven.
Remind me daily that I will never lock eye’s with someone who doesn’t deeply
matter to you Lord. May you take away the things in me that are not of you, and
add the virtues that bring you glory. It’s not by anything I do, but by you
living through me. Thank you for always teaching and rebuking me God, it shows
you are a true and loving Father and I am honored and humbled to be your son. I
love you. Amen.
