WATCHWORD:
Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly. Proverbs 14:29
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14
Now as for you, dear brothers who are waiting for the Lord’s return, be patient, like a farmer who waits until the autumn for his precious harvest to ripen. Yes, be patient. And take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near. James 5:7-8
Meditation:
Patience
Does it seem like patience is in short supply in many areas of our lives, or we are faced with circumstances that require us to wait, and wait, and we don’t like a lot of waiting. See if you can relate to this from Our Daily Bread author Marvin Williams:
“Waiting can be a culprit in stealing our peace. According to computer scientist Ramesh Sitaraman, few things inspire universal frustration and ire in Internet users as waiting for a sluggish web browser to load. His research says that we are willing to wait an average of two seconds for an online video to load. After five seconds, the abandonment rate is about 25%, and after 10 seconds, half of the users desert their efforts. We’re certainly an impatient bunch!”
Can relate to that? Oftentimes, right in the middle of a movie from Netflix or some other source, and there’s a long pause as it buffers and before the movie resumes, you wonder whether you’ve lost the thread of the plot. Waiting in traffic is also another source of our frustration especially in the face of a lot of road construction that we’re likely to see more of as spring comes fully into view.
Even as I write this, I vividly recall feeling a sense of impatience as I waited for my publisher to set a release date for my book. As soon as that date was set, it all went away, as if by magic, replaced by relief. Many of us have a plan when we have a doctor’s appointment. We take a book to entertain ourselves as we wait, and wait, and wait. Yes, I would say patience is in short supply in so many ways.
Jesus had a time with his disciples. They wanted to move, He wanted them to wait while He prayed. They got bored while waiting and fell asleep. In the James passage, above, we are reminded to be patient until the Lord’s coming. Scattered throughout the Bible, God is reminding us to wait for his good plan to unfold. That is a common trait, across centuries, there are few fans for waiting. It’s simply not a favorite thing to do.
For many of the disciples who were raised in an agrarian society where waiting for the wheat to ripen, or the corn to mature was common place, expected. Even the fishermen had to wait for the fish to bite or to gather in their nets.
We are reminded to be patient and not to complain, but sometimes it is hard. We avoid praying for patience because we might not like the lesson. So, instead, we pray for calmness and peace of mind to overcome. Amen.
Today’s Lenten Passage to Ponder:
Mark 7:7-9: They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ 8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” 9 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!
Food During Lent:
As we approach the end of the second week of Lent, our thoughts are on the Cross, there, in the distance, just two weeks away. For many, Lent is a time for sacrifice, and some give up meat. Among the believers in Mexico, there is one dish that is special during this season, it is called “empanadas de vigilia.” It is a hand-held pie filled with seafood or veggies, often accompanied by a dessert called “capirotada”, a bread pudding whose ingredients represent Jesus’ suffering on the cross: bread is his body, syrup his blood, cloves are the nails on the cross, and cheese is his shroud. Can you enjoy a dessert like that and keep the focus on Jesus and His suffering? I don’t know. Could you?
A Lenten Prayer:
Jesus, we’ll wait for You. Though the world is dark and filled with pain, suffering, injustice and uncertainty, we’ll wait for You. Though we don’t’ know the day or the time, we’ll wait for You. It’s in Your name we pray and patiently wait. Amen.
