Well, It's About Time

There are areas in my life where I am a very patient person. I have been waiting for a particular stock I own to recover for about two years now. I have been patient, sometimes to the point of laziness, in getting my writing published. And in other areas, I am a very impatient person. It irks me when a person in front of me takes a right-hand turn more slowly when they need to or is too busy talking on their cell phone to notice that the light has turned green. I get impatient with people when they talk about the same old thing over and over again or if they're over-explaining something to me.

And why do I feel upset about this? Because I feel my rights impinged upon. What rights? The right to spend my day as I see fit. The right to get where I want to go without someone impeding my progress. In short, I feel I should control my time.

The absurdity of this notion is that every day I am alive is a gift from God, meant so that I could draw closer to Him and help others do the same in some way. There are pleasures meant to be enjoyed along the way, painful things to be experienced, help to be given and received, forgiveness to ask and be asked for (and granted), teaching to be done and lessons to be learned, shoulder-slapping laughter and using (or being used as a) shoulder to cry on - in short, there is life to be lived. Each day is given to us, not just that we might find our purpose on this earth, but that we find the purpose for the day God has given us.

And here I am getting mad because someone isn't moving quite fast enough for my liking and causing me to lose three seconds - three whole seconds! - of my day.

"my day"? As though I own it or have any right to it. As though God couldn't end it at any time in any way He chose. As though He doesn't have the right to tell me what to do with every last second of it.

If God came to you and told you that He demanded you to patiently listen to an old woman drone on about her sons and daughters for an hour and the rest of the day could be spent as you saw fit, would you not think that an easy request? If that served His purpose somehow, would it not be worth it?

I think part of the reason we get so impatient is not just that we feel unjustly that we own our days, but that we can't see the purpose behind anything that tries to derail them. We don't stop to think that these things could be little trials sent to test us or teach us patience. We don't consider that by listening to someone, they may feel that someone actually cares for them or that we may really be brightening their day. And we never know when someone will ask a question that makes us stop and think seriously about our own lives. Even if we don't see the purpose, we have to trust in God that there is a purpose behind His letting it have happened.

And even if there wasn't, it would still be His day, not yours, to decide what to do with.