In the Midst of Waiting

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The Hour Glass

Developing the life skill of patience doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and discipline. Many people never grasp the meaning of patience. When I see an hour-glass like the image tagged to this post, I’m reminded of board games and deadlines. When the hour-glass gets flipped and all the sand begins to drop to the empty bottom, the pressure is on. The more the bottom fills the less time to answer a question or do a task.

What if I was the hour-glass and every grain of sand that fell was something I learned from experiences in my life?

I believe patience requires three things: Adversity, Active Waiting, & Attitude.

Adversity

How we respond during adversity defines who we become. Our response either strengthens or weakens our character and witness of the gospel in our lives. One of the worst things that can happen to any leader is to get too much power & authority too soon without the character infrastructure it takes to handle the load of leading others. Only through trials and failure do good leaders turn into great leaders.

I tell my leadership team often that we get stronger and our capacity gets larger with every obstacle and frustration we experience. Experiencing the struggle now helps create a system so it’s easier. I remind them of the famous John Wooden principle, “Practice hard so you can play easy.”  We learn from our failures as leaders and the frustrations that arise from that failure. We measure our success not just with stats on a spreadsheet, but on the growth of people in our organization.

[Tweet “The adversity we face today creates within us the resilience and resolve to fight tomorrow.”]

[Tweet “Adversity reminds us to face who and where we are in the midst of our circumstance.”]

Active Waiting

Waiting doesn’t mean be lazy. We live in a fast-paced society and rarely do we put on the brakes. We need to learn to slow-down. I must confess that I’m extremely impatient & struggle with waiting and being patient.

In the Book of James, we read patience is a blessing. James uses the analogy of a farmer to get his point across; “See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord, is at hand.” Even as the farmer waits for the harvest to come, he still waters and cares for the growing crop.

[Tweet “Patience is a noun, by nature it requires action.”]

Attitude

The process that takes place for a pearl is mind-blowing and incredible to think about. A pearl begins as a grain of sand or some other object that irritates the oyster. If the oyster can’t get rid of the irritant it begins to protect itself from it. It quickly starts to cover this un-welcomed guest with layers and layers of nacre. This layering ends up coating the grain of sand until a beautiful iridescent gem is formed for which we pay top dollar.

Every person we lead, including yourself, has value like that of a pearl. Every testing of character we experience molds us into better leaders, spouses, parents, and children.  The trials, frustrations, tears, and every circumstance adds another layer of beauty to our lives.

Find beauty in your sufferings. God never promised us an easy life; however, He did promise to make our lives better when we trust Him for our every need. Sometimes we experience pain because God wants to use us to speak His truth to others when they are going through a similar trial. When going through life’s difficulties always let what you know to be true trump how you feel in the moment.