What is it about patience that God seems so intent that we learn it? Yesterday my wife and I were in the supermarket for what we thought would be a quick in and out. We queued up in the express lane to check out, and there was a glitch with the customer in front of us. The scanner malfunctioned and wanted to charge her $20 for two tomatoes. And it took about 20 minutes before the glitch was worked out and we could proceed with our checkout.
Funnily enough, a few days before this we had both been reading about patience, and the author had made the comment that we are destined to spend a lot of life waiting; therefore we might as well learn to be patient, because we are going to have to be whether we like it or not. And she specifically talked about waiting gracefully in checkout lines.
It was not exactly convenient for us to just wait in line, because we had things to do and places to be. But there was no getting around it unless we wanted to pull out of our line and go to one of the other long lines on what was a crowded Christmas-season shopping day. And so we waited. I think we took it gracefully. A little agitated perhaps, but we tried not to show it.
But why is our learning patience so important to God that He tests us on it on pretty much a daily basis? Granted, patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit—so it is an attribute of God—and God wants us to become godly, like Him. So perhaps that is enough in itself. But I suspect it is more than that.
We are going to be eternal beings. Spiritually, once we are born again we have eternal life, so we are eternal already; but because our current physical body is mortal, it is not eternal and has an end. But our spirits, although created at a point of time, will have no end. Whether we will continue to exist in time or exist in a future timelessness, either way we will have a lot of “time” on our hands. “Hey, when is John coming over?” “Maybe in like a century. He wasn't specific.” See what I mean? So is learning patience a requisite for being happy in such an environment? I suspect it is.
The author of the book of Hebrews writes that in heaven the righteous are made perfect; in other words, complete.1 It seems our time in this life is very important for us to learn the skills needed to be complete. And that learning process can be pretty frustrating. But if we get only one chance at this particular type of life, then it behooves us to come out of it with the skills and attitudes that life is trying to instill in us.
The other day I was watching a show in which a panel of believers—I think there was a Christian, a Jew, and a Muslim—were trying to make the case against abortion. The Christian stated that he thought that God in His mercy would take the aborted immediately to heaven. A well-known atheist comedienne in the audience (apparently a plant) was then given the mike. She said something to the intent that the Christian should then be happy that the unborn made it straight to heaven, and why was he making such a fuss about abortion if the end result in his eyes was of so much benefit to the aborted? I wasn't able to see his response, as I was called away, but that encounter started me puzzling over that issue. Although I understood that good can come from evil, was this really for the best of the aborted?
But then it occurred to me that even though they were in heaven, they really hadn't gotten the best outcome. Yes, they are in an exquisitely wonderful place we call heaven. Yes, they like it there; anyone would. But they have been deprived of the opportunity to learn the lessons and for their characters to be shaped in ways that can only be learned and be shaped by experiences on earth. Learning life lessons is not always fun, or even generally so. Experience can be a hard schoolmaster, but if we can learn and pass the tests, then we are the better for it.
Here's a shocker, or at least it was to me: I have come to understand that getting to heaven as it now is, is not the goal. It is only a stage and a respite. To travel the journey of life, though, is a goal all its own, and maybe it will be the more important one. Dying and going to heaven is arriving at only a way station. It is a temporary place. The greater goal, and the one we are in training for, is beyond that. It is when the kingdom of God comes to earth at Christ's second coming and when we receive our new super bodies. Our training in this life is to prepare us for that, and that is why it is important for everyone to have a chance at this life.
And so I come back to patience, the current issue that God is working with me on. People will tell you I am generally an easygoing, roll-with-the-punches, don't-get-frazzled kind of guy, the kind of person one would suspect is just patient by nature. But lately I have come to see that that type of patience is superficial; it doesn't really have much endurance. And I must confess that I have been less than patient regarding waiting on God. He has told me that at the moment waiting is what He wants me to do. But regrettably, I am wearing a bit thin.
There is a fine line between laziness and waiting, and at times I am not sure which one applies to me. I don't want to be lazy, so I am trying to figure how I can be productive with side issues and still wait. But I don't think that is what the Lord wants. For some reason He wants me to wait expectantly and be ready when the time comes. He wants me to keep training at my calling and not get off on a side track that may keep me preoccupied but lessen my readiness. And so I learn patience, and I pray that she is having her perfect work, that I may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.2
1 Hebrews 12:23.
2 James 1:2–4 KJV.
Published by the Family International
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