"Patience, Grasshopper!"

Patience. Patience. PATIENCE!!

Count to ten...deep breaths...relax. What happens when you get to eleven?!? 

One of the things I'm learning in ministry is patience. All my life, I've SUCKED at the whole patience thing; but I love God's sense of humor. I'm sure He found it hilarious to make me a pastor! As such, it is vital that I have patience...and God is fully aware of this. And so, the tension exists - I'm driven and passionate about the church. I'm driven and passionate about connecting people to Christ. I'm driven and passionate about telling others, in a variety of ways, about the saving love and mercy of Jesus. It is my life calling and my biggest strength.

But its also my biggest weakness. And left unchecked, it has the potential to destroy EVERYTHING.

A great friend of mine once told me that any relationship problem can be traced back to a failure to meet an expectation. I run into problems when I expect everyone else in my life to be equally as passionate as I am about the things to which God has called me. In short, I place totally unrealistic expectations on others; then to top it off, I get impatient and ticked when those expectations aren't met.

Does that sound Christlike to you? Me neither. But it definitely sounds Chadlike. In a word, SELFISH. And there's Jesus, reminding me to die to self. 

This whole dying to self thing is painful, uncomfortable, and difficult. But what do we expect? Jesus called it DYING for a reason. And we are to die every single day. What?? I don't die very well. None of us do. That's why I'm so thankful that Jesus is patient with me. He never gives up on me, even when I've long given up on me. 

So, Christ-follower, if we (who have been shown copious amounts of patience) can't give that patience to others, we're no different than an impatient, gotta-have-everything-right-now world that Jesus has called us to be set apart from. If we don't give it, we'll never get it in return. 

And you'd better beleive that the world is watching, waiting PATIENTLY to see if we practice what we preach. So when you feel impatient with someone else, calm down, relax, count to ten, and remember Jesus' patience with you. It just might be the trigger that saves someone's life!

MCL