The other day I was at the bakery waiting in line during what I thought was going to be a quick trip to pick up some cookies. However, I started to lose hope when I realized the first woman in line was doing some type of specialty order that was requiring the attention of both of the ladies behind the counter. She was pointing this way and that, and I could tell she was being very specific about what she wanted, like a photographer during a photo shoot. When she finally finished I breathed a sigh of relief like one does when they are in traffic and all of a sudden the car in front of them picks up speed. I got even more excited when I realized the two men in line behind her were together; that meant my wait just got even shorter. Unfortunately, my jubilation was short-lived. As the two men stepped up to the counter one of them asked, “Can I see the cookies?” See the cookies? See the cookies? I said to myself. The cookies are in a glass case, you’ve had ten minutes to see the cookies. What more is there to see? Then the man asked, “Do you have any peanut butter cookies?” Peanut butter cookies, peanut butter cookies! I said again to myself. All of the cookies are marked, so if there are any peanut butter cookies they would be marked, and there are no cookies marked peanut butter, and this is a bakery, not a warehouse, so there is no chance of their being a pile of peanut butter cookies in the back that just haven’t been put out on the shelf yet. The man in front of me, the only one left in line besides myself, and the two cookie coinsurers up front, turned around and smiled at me, as if to say, we’re in this together you and me, and we’re going to make it out of this, just like Robin and Batman.
Fortunately we did make it, and I got my cookies I had been waiting all week for. But I left feeling like I had failed a test; a test that God had used to see if I could handle being inconvenienced for a few moments; a test he had used to find out if I was becoming a more patient person; a test he had used to see if I practiced what I preach. And the results came back negative. I got the same feeling I had in college after a couple of calculus tests were returned to me with a, let’s just say, less than refrigerator worthy grade. I felt sick.
Patience is something that many of us struggle with, and it would not be such a big deal except for the Bible says it is a big deal, and that makes it kind of important. Galatians 5:2 says, “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.” There it is, smack dab in the middle, and hard to miss. Patience is not usually the first quality that comes to mind when we think about living a virtuous life, but according to God it is just as important as many of the other qualities that do come to mind. Why is it then that we are able to brush patience aside like it is a branch that gets in the way while we are trying to mow the lawn, or an annoying cobweb that gets in our eyes while were are trying to find something in the attic? Maybe it is because a lot of times we really are in a rush, or because our impatience does not seem like it hurts other people. Whatever the reason is, it might be helpful to remember that Moses was probably making the same excuses when he took his stick and hit the rock because he was becoming impatient with the Israelites, and because of that he wound up wandering the desert for forty years. I do not think God would make us wander a dessert, but just to teach us a lesson he might make us wait in line a little bit longer at the bakery before we get to the promised land of cookies.
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