Patience

            “Grant me patience Lord.  But hurry!” adorns a magnet on one of my filing cabinets.  “Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord.  The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains” (James 5:7).  There is nothing that we can do to hurry the growth of a seed to a fruit bearing plant.  We have no control over the weather.  Whatever the weather is we have to cope with the consequences, whether a bumper harvest or a barren field.  Patience characterises the life of a person who trusts God whatever happens. 

            On Monday morning I was waiting for my folks in Oxford.  Their plane had been delayed three hours on the tarmac in Toronto due to torrential rains.  As I waited I prayed as I walked and sat along the canal. 

            I watched a canal boat make its gentle descent through a lock then turn around in the river returning into the lock to ascend up into the canal.  It took the man half an hour to execute this patient manoeuvre.  It was a silence broken only by the gushing of water through the gate and the clattering of the boat on the edges of the lock. 

            I felt God was saying to me, “It takes time for me to turn a life around.”  Some folk do experience massive change in a moment.  But for most a heart is transformed in incremental movements.  A will revolves from self to God in daily choices.  Faith is the work of time as prayer works its way from our lips to our minds to our souls.

            Then I sat on the edge of the canal.  Ducks sat in the shade preening their feathers.  The grass was moist beneath me.  I became aware of a tree opposite.  It was a young oak rooted on the bank and drinking in the water.  It had begun as an acorn and, even though young in oak years, was still older than me.  That oak – if not diseased, cut down, or destroyed by winds – would continue growing for hundreds of years to come.

            I felt God was saying to me, “Growth is the work of a life time.  It is slow and deliberate but lasting.”  Faith begins small and by grace is nourished into something strong and magnificent.

Prayer:  Lord, I confess that I’m an impatient person.  I want everything in an instant - at the click of a button.  My next day delivery mentality spills over into my relationship with you.  I want to grow and be spiritually mature by the wave of a magic wand.  Spirit, give me the patience of a farmer to tend the seeds of faith in my own life and in the lives of others.  May I live in patient anticipation of your coming.  Amen.