Day 6

"Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days."
John 11:5-6

So today was a good test of one of the qualities I think I lack the most: patience. There have been times in my life where I was more patient. When I was in Argentina, for example, I got used to other people--including professors--being 20 or 30 minutes late. I even started to adopt this habit, and I never rushed anywhere after my first month of living down there. Yet when I came back to the US, I was reminded that I'm supposed to be in a hurry and on time, and if I'm not both of these things, then I'm doing something wrong. I think this got even worse when we moved up to NJ, because people are ALWAYS in a hurry up here.

I have a hard time waiting on people who are late, but I also hate being late or running behind. If I'm not out the door in the morning at the exact time I thought was best, then I get stressed out. If I'm stuck in traffic and might be a few minutes late for something, I start running through short-cut or bypass options, forget to enjoy the music I'm listening to, and generally just start to get upset with everything and everyone around me.

Jesus never seems to be in a hurry, though. In the passage above, Jesus waits two days to leave after hearing that his friend Lazarus is sick. There is no mention of what he did during those two days, but I'm going to guess that he wasn't just waiting to leave. He was probably healing, teaching, and ministering to those who needed him. The time was not yet appropriate for him to leave and go to his friends. There was work to be done where he already was, and he was definitely going to finish it. The same is true when his followers want to hear him preach so badly that they walk around the sea to meet him at his destination. Jesus is constantly aware of the needs of his followers, and if taking care of them means delaying his plans a little, he will do just that.

I know that I should be more patient about the little things in life. Today, Wes got caught in line at Chipotle and traffic on his way to pick me up. I tried to keep myself from being impatient--I walked partway to where he would turn off the highway, I listened to some music, I even remembered to say a little prayer. But I was still anxious and waiting rather impatiently when he got there. It wasn't even like I was going to be late somewhere. I just don't like waiting. This leads me to ask: Do I rush the bigger things in life, as well? Am I cutting off my ministries before they are complete? Am I not enjoying the precious moments of life because I'm worried about the moments to come?