Feb 12, 2017
Patience and Timing, Endangered Species
2-13-17
I heard about one of those Management Consultants who conduct weekend seminars, telling a story about his advice to a trainee.
“There are two… essential… things… never to forget…” and he paused some more – “when you set out… to navigate your… career.”
Annoyed by the strangely lugubrious rollout, the trainee insisted, “Yes? YES? Well???”
The instructor replied, “Patience.”
Point taken. But the trainee pressed on. “What’s the other thing???”
Before he could finish the question, the instructor interrupted: “Timing.”
Good advice, if we think about it. (By the way, you just saved two whole days, and a $300 registration fee, for the seminar!) (You’re welcome.) Like most good advice, the best source is not a Management guru, or even Life’s Experiences, but the Bible.
The famous verse – so famous that even irreligious people often quote it during their marriage ceremony – from I Corinthians 13, offers “patience” as the first of the words that define Love: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” Wow. “Patience” leads the list.
A verse we all should remember when things are wrong, or insecure, or bleak, or threatening, or dangerous… and we fret – “Be still and know that I am God.” How much simpler can an assurance of God be? My daughter Heather meditates on Psalm 46:10 by parsing its words individually: each phrase brimming with meaning.
“Be.” “Be still.” “Be still and know.” “Be still and know that I am.” “Be still and know that I am God.” Thus comes spiritual patience.
Then there is the closely related virtue, a sense of timing. Many of the Israelites’ woes, and their leaders’ mistakes, came from disobeying God’s directions, being impulsive, jumping the gun, so to speak.
Many Christians do this from mistaken confidence that they have God’s Will; are full of the Spirit; when often it is old-fashioned Pride.
Peter walked on water as his Savior did and instructed him to do… until he looked down. Impulsive.
Of all the Apostles, I identify the most with Peter, I must admit. Impulsive, sometimes too eager to please God, when all He asks is obedience. The “other side of that coin” concerns Peter, again, and those who were told to “wait” for the Disciple to replace Judas. They were impatient… they substituted THEIR timing for God’s… and drew straws. A guy named Matthias was chosen.
I describe him that way because we never hear of him again in the Bible. He was chosen by 11 men holding an election. But the Holy Spirit, in God’s timing, would APPOINT the successor: Paul.
Peter was an impulsive, bumbling, flawed follower of Jesus. After swearing he would never do so, he denied Jesus three times, leading to the crucifixion. But in God’s timing, Peter soon became a wise, inspirational, strong leader. A great Manager, in fact, of the early church, it could be said. On his confession of Jesus as Lord, the church had its foundation.
What changed? Obedience to God’s timing. In that timing, baptism played a role in the step-by-step timing we are to obey, ourselves. When Peter and the Disciples had been baptized in the Spirit – and as other converts were to experience in a tidal wave of belief after Pentecost – the promise of Zechariah 4:6 was confirmed: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, said the Lord of hosts…”
Jesus Himself had no earthly ministry we are told about, for the first 30 years of His life. Then he was baptized in the River Jordan, according to God’s timing. The Holy Spirit came upon Him, and His heavenly ministry commenced.
Patience is a virtue. And timing? Always remember to set your clocks and watches to God-Standard Time.
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Click: Waiting On the Lord
BRILLIANT!
I once thought that my mom’s favorite phrase was: “Patience is a virtue.”
Now that I’m significantly older than she lived to be, I realize that this simple truth wasn’t so much a favorite as it was something she believed I really needed to know, to understand, to embrace. As you might suspect, I failed to grasp both the verity and the value of this motherly counsel. I hope that one day I’ll have the opportunity to apologize to my long suffering mom for ignoring this, and so many other things she tried to teach me. May God, this moment, be blessing this dear lady, who headed toward Him, and Home, in 1980.
Speaking of God’s timing. . .this piece is at this exact moment a word of wisdom. I rose at 4 in the morning too anxious to set about my work to sleep. But as I labored over a work of obedience, I was overcome by anxious feelings of defeat and pressure. Five hours later, I laid my head down to rest for a couple hours, but awoke just ten minutes later, an overwhelming presence of the Lord around me. Playing in my mind was this song I haven’t heard in years, “Not by might, not by power, but my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts.”
I read the fourth chapter of Zechariah to revisit the origin of the words. The first words were, “Now the angel who talked with me came back and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep.”
And then following the beautiful words I came to seek, were these, “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.”
Seeing the same text repeated here reminds me of their divine merit, and of your dear friendship and faithfulness.
Thank you for speaking to my heart.
THANK YOU for sharing. This is the least important aspect of your comment, but I receive such succor when I hear that someone has been blessed (or challenged, or refreshed…) by these essays. “How did you know I needed to hear what you wrote this week?” … those kinds of responses.
OK, to the important part. Isn’t it wonderful how the Hold Spirit works? I NEVER get tired of hearing it, I never cease to be amazed. And humbled. Well, we are just vessels, after all. This message, in fact, almost wrote itself — and I have told friends — that it had to. A crazy few days and weekend. But you needed to hear it, and Jo Lauter, and a bunch of folks who have written on my personal address. While “in the Spirit” (?) we must talk about what you refer to — anxiety about your work, defeat, pressure. (I am a charter member of that club, I am afraid; and we can compare notes) I mean to encourage you and brainstorm a bit. God bless you!