Good Tuesday morning! I just received a reference to a book that helped me in my career way back in the day. Now that same book is in the Internet for Kids category. The text book is only 10 years old. I suppose that is what happens with technology these days; a ten year old book is now good for only 10 year old kids. The funny thing is that yesterday this title was the very book that I had decided to trash due to the age of the subject matter. Coincidence or just the humor of life?
Are we so disappointed in our new president so soon? If we can believe the polls, it would seem that many Americans are. We do seem to be an impatient lot. Christians are often the same way with God. We bring a request to Him in prayer... and expect an answer immediately. Or we may get an answer such as: be patient, and we are...for maybe a day or two. We don't wait very well! Life has sped up in this age, but that doesn't mean that God has lost control or been taken by surprise. When God tells us to wait, we can rest in the assurance that He has good reason for us to wait. If you didn't get a huge dose of God's perfect patience when you were saved, all I can say is: welcome to the group!
Patience, like love, trust, and faith, is a growth project in all of us. We must learn all of these attributes of the Spirit as we grow closer to Christ. Part of the problem with patience is that our world has spoiled us. We don't have to hike to the library to search encyclopedias any more, we simply Google it. We can reach out to far flung friends with e-mails and expect answers almost immediately at times. 3 or 4 days can get us a written letter to someone in a far state, yet we call that "snail mail" now. Life in the modern age doesn't help us to learn patience. All of our technological advances are nice, but in some ways it makes more work for the Holy Spirit. We get saved and we want to be like Paul or Moses... right now!
When Moses was young, he murdered an Egyptian and hid the body. God would use him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, much later in his life. Leading a nation into a life of crime was probably not what God had in mind; Moses needed to mature a bit. Saul learned much at a young age, such as how to guard the coats while his elders stoned Stephen to death. Paul would eventually become a powerful force for growth both in the early church and in churches around the world. However, as a young Saul, he did more harm than good to the early Christians. He too needed to mature a bit.
A young Jesus amazed the old priests and teachers of the law at 12 years old. However, we know from the Bible that he waited about 18 years before starting his ministry. Imagine ordering something from a catalog and having 18 years quoted as the delivery time. What if you knew what you wanted to do for a career at 12, but your dad said that you had to wait until your 30th birthday to start that career? Yikes, imagine the howling that would start. "30? I'll be old by then!" Of course, I now realize that 30 isn't old, but I had to mature a bit to reach that conclusion. I didn't use "we" since all of you are still only 29 of course. :-)
Maturity in our Christian life takes time. We don't always want to spend that time enjoying the journey, but take a look around and see how far you have come in Christ. Enjoy the journey and look forward to the destination.
Bucky
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