PATIENCE

Maybe that’s why life is so precious. No rewind or fast forward… just patience and faith.

Cristina Marrero

The Oxford dictionary puts it rather nicely, ‘the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious’.

I look back at the last few days, and think of these two words, accept & tolerate, and feel so ashamed of how I get about a single day. It’s clear that the result of these two words must be positive if followed. However, the negative result is annoyance and anxiety.

At the check-in counter, we were asked if we had any ‘explosive’ liquids in our baggage to which our answer was a firm NO! We then requested that our bags are tagged ‘fragile’ as we had some gifts of wine. Much to our absolute surprise, we were informed that ‘no alcohol is permitted in checked luggage, you have not read our terms and conditions!‘

Air travel post pandemic has gotten exciting and busy! Some airports ask passengers to arrive as early as 4 hours before a flight. (https://www.livemint.com/news/india/delhi-airport-t3-congestion-live-updates-situation-improved-or-chaotic-11670991598597.html.) At security, the guidelines are clear, remove laptops, jackets, shoes, empty pockets, and so on. I was standing in queue, the person ahead of me was being screened, his pockets were full, he had not removed his jacket. He was requested to go back and follow instructions, to which he began arguing with the security personnel! I was annoyed, I was anxious about my flight, I prayed, watched, and waited, a further 5-minutes, this was an unnecessary delay that I was not looking forward to.

Disembarking is when everyone is in a mighty hurry. The row in front of me had six passengers, and they were moving out of their isles, I waited for them to move out, and someone from behind me pushed me and said, “Please move fast“. I turned back and pointed to him that there were others ahead of me trying to get off. It did not matter to him.

My wife and I were texting each other on some plans and arrangements. Suddenly there was silence. I sent her a message “Why no news?“. As i did not hear back in the next 2 minutes, I called her in annoyance. Her phone was busy. The usual questions popped up: “Why are you talking to someone when we are discussing such an important matter? After all, I NEED your attention…”

In all the actual occurrences, I was either not willing to accept, or I just could not tolerate the situation I was facing. In all of these examples explained, I was either absolutely annoyed with someone or my anxiety levels increased because I was being inconvenienced and, the immediate reaction was either an argument with the check-in counter staff expressing how their airline was crazy and no other airline had such stupid rules or swearing at the passenger ahead of me at the security gate and the passenger behind me when disembarking or, raising my voice in annoyance. Oh, and by the way, my wife eventually called me back, only to discover that someone was unwell and had needed help for which my wife was making some immediate arrangements to help them in a crisis situation (and here I am wanting attention, I felt so stupid).

I reflect, and I ask myself why I am so impatient. I realize how stupid I have been in every situation I have shared with you because simply put, I was just not willing to accept or tolerate the situation I was in. Because I was not willing, the immediate result is I get triggered, and this results in me reacting negatively.

We just concluded a week of Prayer and Fasting, and this helped me to intentionally take time to pray and believe for more for our church and our personal lives. My first revelation was a knock on my head, I have help, I just do not want to use it when I am not in control of my emotions:

In the same way the Spirit [comes to us and] helps us in our weakness. We do not know what prayer to offer or how to offer it as we should, but the Spirit Himself [knows our need and at the right time] intercedes on our behalf with sighs and groanings too deep for words.

Romans 8: 26 AMP

Every encounter was a breach in my relationship with the individual. We have our imperfections, I did not allow a prayer for these relationships to be defined by peace, unity, and the love of God. I only wanted to make it more difficult and disgusting. The psalmist was singing to me silently, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1 NIV), because my goal was not ‘unity’.

I need a better way to live, I am praying for greater faith to believe that God will do greater things in and through us! I am believing for supernatural breakthroughs by being obedient to Him! I cannot do this alone, perfection for myself will never be achieved, however I am encouraged that perfection can be achieved if I am connected with other believers, mentors and followers who help each of us to work towards perfection as one body!