“Three
different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he
said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in
weakness.’ So
now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can
work through me.” – 2 Corinthians 12:8-9
You can tell a lot about a person by how they eat a
mint.
That’s what one of my professors taught me in graduate
school. He would sit a bowl of peppermints
and hard candies out on the table in each class and watch.
People who approach life with more ease and patience tend to
take mints and savor them for a while.
They allow the mint to dissolve in its own time.
People that are considered more “high functioning” don’t go
for that. It may start off that way, but
they don’t have time for mulling around with their mints. They go in for the kill and bite down. Game
over mint.
“Life is meant to be savored, Julia,” he would tell his mint
munching pupil.
I thought about him yesterday after dinner as I crunched
down triumphantly on a peppermint. After
all these years, patience is still a challenge for me. I like sprints, not marathons. I like quick lessons and shallow valleys. Let
me chomp down and crack open God’s truth and move on.
But that is not what life gives us most of the time.
So when it comes to delays, I am sometimes disappointed in
myself when I lose heart. When I feel
discouraged. When I slide down the
mountainside exhausted from climbing.
I’ve always desired more patience, but when God brought me
into this season and set me on a path with no finish line in sight and told me
to “go,” I was secretly hoping the distance was an illusion. I was hoping I would turn the first corner
and find victory. I never desired a
patience that would bring me to a place where my legs would give underneath me;
where I would feel broken. But, it
was in this type of race that God wanted me.
Because it’s in these types of races where I experience a truth that says, “they that wait upon the Lord, shall renew
their strength” (Isaiah 40:31).
If I had all the strength I need, why would I need to be
renewed??
If I could rely on myself, where would I rely on God?
Renewal means, I WILL be depleted, but He is faithful to
restore if I allow Him to.
So when I think of it this way, patience is not willpower or
emotional indifference. Patience is a
waiting that relies on God. Patience
makes God the finish line.
Just recently I got an invitation to the Wings for Life World Run. It’s a unique race format where the
finish line chases you. You
keep running and as long as you are ahead of the finish line (catcher car) you’re
in the race. Interesting, huh? If there is no end, what keeps the runners
going? Why do they even start? Well, the race benefits spinal cord injury research,
so racers are motivated to run for those who can’t run for themselves. That goal is the cause.
So when Paul said in Philippians 3:14, “I press toward the
mark of the high calling that is in Christ Jesus,” he was urging us to set Christ as
our cause.
Endurance makes my goal God himself.
So where does that leave me now?
Still in the race….
But when my legs fail me, I remind myself to keep my
eyes on the prize.
“He kept right on going because he kept
his eyes on the One who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27).
When I grow anxious in the wait, I allow, “patience to have
her perfect work” (James 1:4).
When I struggle with my endurance and want to insert my own finish lines, I instead surrender to the One who is the “author and finisher
of my faith” (Hebrews 12:2).
That’s what patience means to me.
What about you? What's your cause? Who are you relying on?
Maybe one day I’ll savor mints.
Probably not.
But what I am determined to do is learn the type of
patience that God desires for me.
A patience that relies on Him
A patience that endures.
Let’s pray: Lord
God, help me to be still enough to see the works that You are trying to perform
in my life. Give me an enduring spirit
of strength, peace, and confidence in the “meantime” as I wait on You. My
desire is that my waiting ministers to others as powerfully as my victories
because they are both for my good and completing a perfect work in me. As I lean on You and not my own understanding
or abilities, thank You that by Your supernatural power I will walk and not be
weary, I will run and not faint. I will
complete Your race and when it is all said and done, YOU will receive all the
glory. In Jesus name. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment