KEY SCRIPTURE: LUKE 18:15
But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
RELEVANCE
Various situations in the Bible require or show patience. The faith and patience we use in trials deepens our spiritual experience. Patience is a more significant subject than we realise. It is a life-altering quality that often goes unnoticed, especially in daily interactions.
Today, I want to share some life situations I found myself in, which the Lord used as trials to set me some standards.
The other day, Heather and I cooked a corned beef. Astounding, you might think!
We shared the jobs evenly. Heather’s job was to go shopping, select the corned beef, prepare it, put it in the slow cooker, turn it on, and instruct me about my role.
My job was to stick a fork into it at 5 pm to see if it was cooked.
How often do we forget that our lives are in God's slow cooker? Yet we act as if we're on a fast grill. Impatience is a growing problem both outside the Church and within. However, it takes time to be ready—to go through the various stages of learned tenderness.
The Sower and the Seed parable from our key verse speaks of the slow cooker experience—to bring forth fruit with patience.
The corned beef was put on at about 8 a.m. In my impatience, I could have tested it two hours later, at 10 a.m., but it would still have been tough. I could have yelled at it, but that wouldn’t have cooked it any quicker, would it?
By 2 p.m., I could have gotten really frustrated and jabbed it a few times to hurry it up, but that wouldn’t have progressed the work either.
I could have stomped around the kitchen ranting about how stupid this meat was, how tough it was, how nobody in their right mind would work with this stuff. I could have even yelled at the beef,“Why aren't you as quick as the steak I cooked last night? Three minutes on each side, and it was superb. Yet, here you are, taking forever!”
Or, I could have thrown it in the bin and got some steak or chicken, which would have better suited my impatient state. But that’s not the way to cook slow-cooked products.
The question is, why are we often more patient with slow-cooked meals than we are with people?
THERE IS AN ANSWER:
The short answer is we know that the meal is in a slow cooker, and they take time to cook. We adjust our patience to suit.
We would please God more if we looked at others the same way.
A LOT OF OUR PEACE COMES FROM OUR PATIENCE.
After that introduction, I wanted to share some stories about patience in action. I’ve shared a couple before, but they’re worth repeating.
1. When I was fifteen, my mates and I got into trouble with the Police and Court. Mum was blasting my ear off, but Dad was very calm throughout. He understood life's long haul and that this was simply a speed hump. I still remember both approaches and which I preferred.
2. Not long after prison, I supervised a new group of employees who had only been on the job for a few weeks. We had one of those work days where we needed to run all day. You know, those days when some people dump patience and start yelling abuse and belittling people, thinking it helps get the job done.
We had several crates to be packed and distributed to various destinations Australia-wide. I had about ten of those newbies that night, and the packing was complicated. We were the only people left in the factory. We'd had a 6 am start. It was now 10 pm, and we were still flat out.
Thinking they were doing the right thing, the team put components in any crate as trucks waited. It was a jumble and the perfect time to blow my lid. But if I did that, I might get the product out but lose the faith of a good team. Once you do that, you get mistakes.
As I remained calm, controlled, and patient in the panic and responded to workers in a low-key, encouraging tone, we triple-checked everything and got the job done accurately. When we closed the gates at 11:30 pm, one of my workers, older than me and a consultant before the recession, said, "If I had a business, you would be the first person I would hire."
3. Following that job, I worked briefly for a door-knocking sales company. After a few weeks, the company gave me my own team. It was the lowest-performing team of the seven teams. Within a few weeks, we were the company's highest-performing team, breaking team bests and personal bests daily. There was no need to sack anyone or berate people. I combined patience with a strategy I thought would work, and it came together beautifully. You need to understand people and many leaders don't have the patience for that.
4. I was hired for a job where none of the team had been there longer than 30 days. I was told I could sack them all and bring in my own people. But jobs were hard to get, and I didn't feel that would be right, so I worked with the guys I had.
One of the guys, Jeff, had a long resume for his age. He'd never remained in a job for more than two years. Just after the three-month mark of full employment, he told me he was to lose his licence for 18 months. I had the right to sack him, but I didn't.
Unexpectedly, I made a deal with him. If he stays calm, listens, and obeys me during high-pressure situations, I'll look after him.
For the next 18 months, I took a longer route to work and picked him up every morning. That included knocking on his window at times to wake him up.
This is the extra workload that comes with patience.
IT PAID OFF
He lasted ten years. Now, he’s with another company, has made a long service, and is a key figure in the organisation. He learned to stay controlled when things don't go your way in a busy workplace.
ROMANS 5:3-4 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that TRIBULATION worketh PATIENCE;
THERE IS A SEQUENCE HERE
And PATIENCE, experience; and experience, hope:
(Hope is that PRACTICE that gives you the vision for success)
Jeff never exercised the patience to successfully make it through the experiences that would have brought him hope. He lost hope every time…in the company and the job. This allowed depression to set in. He thought his life was going nowhere and would always quit his job.
HOW DO WE DEVELOP PATIENCE?
Besides prayer, there are two critical answers—Time Management and Understanding.
Time management.
Leave earlier. Account for the unforeseen.
Use checklists for shopping, work, or other things. Helps planning.
Use a diary—and run by it 80-90%, leaving 10% for the unforeseen.
If you can't help being late, ring appointments and say you’ll be late instead of panicking through traffic
Understanding When we take a helicopter view of the situation, we better appreciate both sides and minimise pride, selfishness and ignorance. For example, let's say I’m booked to help someone at 7 pm. My punctuality is critical, but I didn't arrive until 7.20, holding everybody up. They started yelling at me, saying, “Don't you know how important this is?” Everybody was right in their own eyes until I mentioned that a child was hit by a car, and I stopped to render assistance. Only then does perspective enter the situation.
Praying for patience while not working to overcome the trial, test, or exercise is pointless.
WORLD CHAMPION SPRINTER Usain Bolt supposedly said, "I trained for four years to run 9 seconds, and people give up when they don’t see results in two months.”
Patience has a transforming power!
PRAYER
Dear Lord, I will never understand the degree of your patience. As I look at history and my own personal history, I see your patience fitting hand-in-hand with your love. Praise and thanks to the Living God.
Photo by Clément Falize
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