Patience

My boss has frequently told me I have the thickest skin of any guy he has ever worked with.   I do not have a thick skin.   Insults hurt me as much as the next guy.  I have patience.  Even then I still flip out on a regular basis.  I do not have the patience to wait.

I feel bad because sometimes the only place I show my impatience is with the people I love the most.   It is a bit crazy that we are at our worst when we are the most secure.  Those people that really know us will understand and forgive us so all hell can break loose, right?  Not right.

This Christmas I will spend on the road, away from those that I care about the most.  It will be a day of patience as I deal every day with men who are not where they want to be. They want to be home with their families, with friends and familiar surroundings.  These are men who exhibit on a moment by moment basis a lack of patience, but because of their need find themselves right where I am.

Working on the road for whatever reason teaches patience

• People expect that I should be home.  Patience.
• Men at work do not get along.  Patience.
• Flights get delayed. Patience.
• I don't want to be here myself.  Patience.
• There is no experience I have had that is not common to man.  Patience.
• This hotel room is like a prison cell.  Patience.
• I want a change so that I never have to do this again.  Patience.
• My wife does not call enough.  Patience.
• When my wife calls she has bad timing and I can't talk.  Patience.
• Other people think I should quit.  Patience.
• My personal business is in a shambles because I am not there to attend to it.  Patience.
• I fear my friends and family are slowly forgetting me while I wait on God.  Patience.
• Having your only connection to the life you want be via Facebook........PATIENCE.

 It is easy to create a list unending on patience and waiting for God to show us the details of why something is happening the way it is.

When I think about it, being a Christian is all about patience.

God does not show himself to be empirically proven. Patience.
I wait for heaven.  Patience.
I wait for my own perfection.  Patience.
I have to be nice to people.  Patience.
Looking for the blessed Hope.  Patience
Living with people that hate Christianity and mischaracterize it.  Patience.
Living with yet more people that misuse Christianity and give it a horrible name.  Patience.
Living with and around blindness.  Patience.
Not liking world events.  Patience.
Mocked by those that do not believe.  Patience.

The waiting is the hardest part.   You might wait your entire life. Life is a practice in patience.

Patience begets patience.  I am patient because God is patient.
Jonathan Edwards penned in his famous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God",
"There is no Want of Power in God to cast wicked Men into Hell at any Moment. Men's Hands can’t be strong when God rises up: The strongest have no Power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his Hands.  He is not only able to cast wicked Men into Hell, but he can most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly Prince meets with a great deal of Difficulty to subdue a Rebel, that has found means to fortify himself, and has made himself strong by the Numbers of his Followers. But it is not so with God. There is no Fortress that is any Defense from the Power of God. Tho’ Hand join in Hand, and vast Multitudes of God’s Enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in Pieces: They are as great Heaps of light Chaff before the Whirlwind; or large Quantities of dry Stubble be- fore devouring Flames. We find it easy to tread on and crush a Worm that we see crawling on the Earth; so ‘tis easy for us to cut or singe a slender Thread that any Thing hangs by; thus easy is it for God when he pleases to cast his Enemies down to Hell. What are we, that we should think to stand before him, at whose Rebuke the Earth trembles, and before whom the Rocks are thrown down?". 

With God there is no strength in numbers, no safety that you are right just because many agree with you.   There is only the patience of God that withholds His hand or makes it soft.

Patience.  Use it to get through your holidays with joy.  Use it every day all day for the rest of your life.