I was stuck for ten minutes at a railroad crossing, waiting for an extremely long freight train to wind its way through. I kept inching my car forward and craning my neck to see if the end of the train was at least somewhere within sight. I figured if I could see how far away the end was, I could prepare myself for however long the wait would be. Then I could make myself pleasantly busy on my phone as I waited oh so patiently.
But I couldn’t see the end! OOOHH NOOO! I had to just…SIT THERE! I was just left to wonder, stress out, and to incessantly check my watch. How can anyone be expected to be patient when they don’t have all the answers, or at least have a clue as to how long the wait will be?
Isn’t accepting an unforeseen end to a long wait the definition of patience? Or even more difficult, accepting the fact that there may be no end?
True patience is dependent on a strong faith and belief that the present circumstance is temporary, and that a better time is ahead. However, we try to force an element of our own control, even when control is totally out of our hands. It makes us feel better…we think. The reality is, if we can’t see the end, we can never truly be in control. For some, that reality may be terrifying. God always knows where the end is, but He seldom gives out that information before we need it. If we don’t have it, we don’t need it.
Patience. Not nervous waiting. Patience. There is a better plan ahead. Patience. We are free to let our paranoid guard down. Patience. We can rest without heart palpitations. Patience. There truly is Someone who is always in total control, no matter how long the wait.
When we listen carefully (without those heart palpitations), we can discover that there is a purpose for us even in the waiting. Everyone’s purpose is unique, because we are all waiting for something different. But patience is the common element for fulfilling that purpose; if we already know exactly how long we have to wait, we won’t really learn what we need to, and that is indeed the wasted time that we’re trying to avoid.
Sometimes we may put a time limit on our patience – “I’ll be patient, but only for so long!” I actually heard someone say, “I was patient once, and it didn’t work!” Oh wait, maybe that was me. Patience isn’t “done” once. It takes as long as it takes. Every time I try to predict the end of the patience train, I blow it. I have turned my car around after getting fed up with the wait, but then I encounter the beginning of the very same train on a different road and have to wait even longer. I have turned off my car engine while waiting and seething, only to have trouble getting the engine to turn over and making everyone behind me wait even longer. If I had not been so impatient, I would have seen what God had for me in the wait, not just after the caboose passed. I can try taking matters into my own hands, and I may end up getting what I am supposed to, but I end up making it so much more complicated, and it takes so much longer. I do it to myself, and then blame it on something or someone else.
Sometimes the “waiting train” in our lives takes longer because of something blocking the track. Sometimes it’s just a very long train. But the caboose finally does cross the track, and we can continue on to the job and promise ahead.
So, relax when you don’t always see the end of the train. We may need patience, but we also need time to prepare for the wild and often bumpy ride on the other side of the track. There will be lots of train crossings; sometimes we’ll make it across without being stopped, sometimes we will need to rework our timing and wait for the train to pass. But never try to outrun the train; the warning lights and bells remind us that we need to take pause and wait. The caboose will signal the end of the wait, and then we can
Dance on.
Grace Notes 