PATIENCE

The Rev. Martin e. Pike, Jr. tells this story.

Three minutes had elapsed since I had taken my set at the counter. Waitresses passed me by; two cooks and a busboy took no notice of my presence. My ego was soothed only because the truck driver seated next to me was ignored as well. “Maybe this counter is off limits,” I said to him. “Maybe they are short of help,” he responded.

“Maybe they don’t want our business,” I said. “Maybe they are taking care of those at the tables,” was his reply. The hands on the clock continued to move. “Maybe they don’t like us,” I insisted. “The air conditioning feels so good I don’t mind waiting,” he said.

At this point a harried waitress stopped to tell us that the water had been cut off, and the dishwasher was not functioning. My nameless compatriot smiled and thanked the waitress and left. I did not like him. Three times I sought his support for my obnoxious attitude, but he had let me down. Only later did I realize that he had chosen to practice what I preach.

This lesson about being patience came in handy while I was on vacation. When I went to the United States, I arrived in Washington, D.C. and boarded a commuter jet for a short flight to Pittsburgh where my family was waiting for me to arrive. My plane left the gate and went out to the runway where we sat in the hot plane for over two hours because thunderstorms in the area prevented us from taking off.

On my return to Paris, I arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport and proceeded to the baggage claim area to collect my checked bag. After waiting for over an hour and being told to go from one carrousel after another where the bags were supposed to be collected, finally a message came that our bags were sent to the wrong terminal and we all had to go to another terminal to collect them.

In both cases, there was nothing I could do but patiently wait. Patience is an important aspect of our life of faith and essential to our Hopes. While we live in the present, nevertheless, there is much that we must patiently wait for. Hope is concerned with what has not yet happened. We do not hope for what we have but for what we are expecting. I hoped that my plane would take off for Pittsburgh and I hoped that my bag would eventually appear at the Paris airport. Hope requires a patient waiting.

And so, we patiently wait for the time when our faith in Christ will be fulfilled in his second coming, in our being with Him in eternity. We patiently hope for the fulfillment of the promises made by Christ to all who believe and trust in Him.

here seems to be so many aspects of our daily life that can help us to develop this patiently waiting in hope like the delays at airports for planes to take off and bags to be delivered.