Today's topic was entitled "Hoping For Others What You Hope For Yourself." It spoke to me and I want to share it here:
As my wife, Sweet Maria, will tell you, I haven’t always been the most patient person. I think fast food takes too long. The best part about sushi is you don’t have to wait to cook the fish.
My default setting is all gas, no brake. Sometimes I have a hard time slowing down long enough to have the deep conversations I’d otherwise like to have or be asked the hard questions. But I’m trying to do better.
Have you ever said that to yourself with an issue or trait you just can’t seem to get some distance from? I’m trying to do better. While the people around us are hoping we’ll try a little harder, you know you’re giving it everything you’ve got—even if it doesn’t look like a lot.
We can give ourselves the benefit of the doubt because we know God is always changing us and transforming us into people who look a little more like Jesus. He’s taking the long view with us. Thank goodness for that.
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to give yourself some grace, but it’s a lot harder to give it to someone else who we don’t think is changing fast enough?
What if we gave others the benefit of the doubt we’re quick to extend to ourselves? When someone snubs us or makes us feel inferior, what if we remembered they’re still in the process of becoming? They’re probably just as insecure as we are and just made the kind of mistake we make all the time.
Just like we’re growing out of the impatient or unkind or dogmatic or pretentious people we used to be, other people may be changing too. Give them a little grace while it happens.
So when someone slips up, celebrate how far they’ve come—don’t think about how long it took them to get there.
Being patient with others is difficult, but I find that being patient with myself is harder. I want to already “be”.....already be through my grief, already have that someone special in my life everyday, already have my future planned (which is so ridiculous). Even at work I want to have everything I know I need to do DONE, even if that task isn’t due yet. And I find myself waiting to be content until all of this is complete. My difficulty is living in the moment well because it seems I’ve always been waiting on some future hope.
I look back and remember, I couldn’t wait until I was married. Then I couldn’t wait until we got to see our kids grow and graduate and gravitate toward families of their own. Then I couldn’t wait until we got to retire together and travel. But somewhere in the “couldn’t wait for’s,” my husband got cancer and my "couldn’t wait for" changed - I couldn’t wait for God to heal him. That “couldn’t wait for” lasted for eight years. What I couldn’t wait for then is impossible to wait for now. In a moment, it seemed, life had changed.
You would think that through all of these life lessons God has brought me to, that I would be so much better at this task of patiently waiting in joy now. I’m still working on it. Probably should get a T-shirt made - "work in progress." I’m trying to make myself slow down, remembering that God has a character to build in me, a perseverance to develop. There is something I need to learn from where He has planted me and who He has placed in my life. And He has such sweet beauty for me to enjoy if I take the time to stop and be thankful in this moment.
It does begin with this moment- seeing what He has given me, recognizing what He’s doing in my life and thanking Him for such a gift that He would work in the life of someone like me. It begins by choosing joy right where I am, here in these shoes that on so many days are already trying to run toward tomorrow.
Here are the scriptures God has brought to mind this morning:
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”
2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV
“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”
Philippians 4:11 NIV
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”
Philippians 4:4 NIV
“Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord and delight in his salvation.”
Psalms 35:9 NIV
My prayer is for my Father to help me to slow down with myself and really accept the gift of today that He offers me, no matter what it brings. Christ told us to love our God with all our heart, all our soul and all our strength...and to love others as we love ourselves. I think by loving myself, who He has made me to be and where He has placed me, I will in turn give that grace to others. Maybe as Bob Goff suggests, I'll be able to celebrate how far I and my friends have come instead of thinking about how long it took for us to get there.
I leave you with a beautiful photo from a special friend who's been helping me through lately and a song from Housefires, "I'll Give Thanks."
"The things we see everyday are the things we never see at all." - G.K. Chesterton
