Though it didn’t affect me directly, I felt incredibly sorry for the hundreds of people in cars stuck in a cue that extended all the way from Otaki to Levin recently - fortunately I was going the other way.
On occasion I have done battle with Auckland motorways. Being a person who is not used to waiting in traffic for extended periods of time I have experienced the rising stress of not getting to where I want to be when I want to be there.
Is it too much to hope that I can reliably get from A to B without having to wait for no particular reason? Well the answer appears to be “yes”! It is far too much to ask because life is just not like that.
When I was in the Army there was a saying that has survived generations – “hurry up and wait”. No one ever informed me what the “wait” was for. We just had to! This “waiting” was supposed to help us discover a thing called “patient readiness”.
I love to observe people in ordinary situations. Supermarkets are excellent observation posts, especially when they’re busy. They remind me of Las Angeles International Airport – lots of clients and very few lanes open for service. In these situations, people do one of two things; stand in any cue looking tired and frustrated while they endure women’s magazine (auto mags are never on display). Alternatively they wander up and down the isles peeking into shopper’s trolleys hoping they’ll be faster. Madness really.
According to a proverb dating back to the 12th century and quoted in Latin, French and English, “patience is a virtue”. If it’s true, then I’m obviously in trouble.
But what end does it serve?
Well, I have decided that patience is a component of peace. Peaceable people are often patient and patient people are peaceful to be around.
Without patience other less helpful emotions tend to erupt in uncontrolled ways – anger, frustration, hatred, unhappiness and unfaithfulness. These things don’t tend to result in peace, yet they are pretty common human experiences these days.
Among other things, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for the will be called children of God”. But peacemakers are not just patient. There are other virtues that go with it.
The Bible says that the fruit of God’s Spirit is a person’s life results in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. It’s not rocket science to realise that the net result of these virtues, if they were a normal part of my life, would be peacemaking.
I think it was Mohandas Ghandi who said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world”. If you desire a better world, you need a better self - a more patient and peacemaking self. A change that can only occur when we connect with the God who created the good we often experience and want to see more of.
Digby Wilkinson © 2008