Hi GoldenRule,

Thanks for completing your essay on time - in view of your illness giving you a rough time of late, I would have been only too happy to grant you an extension.

It's understandable that you're less patient. We all know that we haven't got all the time in the world, but I guess that until we go through a similar situation to you, we're not really aware of it. (On a lighter note, in your absence we've been experiencing a super slow wondercafe. You return and mention how valuable our time is - and wondercafe speeds up. God does indeed work in mysterious ways!)

I was very interested to read how your illness has affected your faith. Particularly, how you never felt alone, God's presence was always there. I'm pleased to say that in rough patches in my own life I felt exactly the same. I now think of God as the other in my life.

p.s. It  was my Dad who was the teacher!

We shoould never lose the "lighter side of things". .

And I'm glad to hear that you've had similar feelings. "The other in our lives" is a good way to decribe God.

And my dad, a dirt poor farmer, was, and still is, though many years gone. one of the greatest teachers in my life as well (and I know that wasn't the way you meant it, it just "felt right.")

Thanks so much

It is funny how life experiences can both shorten and enhance tolerance; tolerance, by the way, is just another word for patience.

This past week a young woman, she was only 42, died unexpectedly from a heart attack.  Not long ago I shared here, how another young woman and her daughter died in a winter related accident.   These deaths and others, tragic unexpected accidents of fate, touch one deeply and can either shake or firm perceptions, faith and actions.

Personally I find myself seeing the world like David, my patience for the speed at which important things are being resolved is running out.  Yet, at the same time, my tolerance for minor things is growing - does it really matter in the great scheme of things if Wondercafe is slow or that little old man with a full shopping cart is in the express lane?

We all posses only so much energy and as we age, or become ill, this energy becomes precious.  It should not be squandered on anger and retribution but used instead for joy and laughter, because interestingly enough I have found that the latter increases one's energy instead of depleting it.  It is a renewing force that affects not just you but spreads out to others.

Change has an outward momentum and while it is never restricted to just one thing or person, it will begin with one.  Each of us can be Patient X, the ground zero that infects one and then another until the next thing you know somebody in Australia has been impacted by the actions of someone in Canada.

Thus, we can become the change we want by being that change.

LB

Let us be patient with one another, And even patient with ourselves.
We have a long, long way to go. So let us hasten along the road,
The road of human tenderness and generosity.
Groping, we may find one another's hands in the dark.
Emily Greene Balch, (1867–1961), 1946 Nobel Peace Laureate
 

I'm going to throw my hat in with GR and LB.

When I was a student, determined to take to the streets and set the world on fire, I was often told (usually in tones just hovering around condescension) that I should enjoy the passion of youth, that I would learn to mellow as I aged.

When I was a newly ordained minister, impatient, energetic, passionate and uninterested in subtlty, I was often told (usually in tones just hovering around condescension) that I should enjoy the passion of youth, that I would learn to mellow as I aged.

I'm still not that old on the grand scale of things, although these past 9 months since Daria was born have aged me considerably.  I will admit to having lost some of the edge of my idealism, and having seen the edge of my cynicism grow.  But I am certainly no less passionate or impatient.  More so, on both accounts.  There's a saying that "nothing worth accomplishing can happen in a life time"  or something along those lines.  But it has to happen in SOMEONE's lifetime, and I can't think of a good reason why it shouldn't be mine, dammit.

¡Viva la revolución!

 GoldenRule wrote :

So, in order to make this not too long, how has my perception changed? The long view isn't enough. The long view is God's, who has all the time in the world. We have right now. And a few minutes more. Maybe.

Its up to us what we do with them.

David, I don't disagree with what you say when you offer up "patience" to God. But maybe when we meet God, we should each have a letter of recommendation to give him from someone here on earth.

My letter of recommendation for you:

GoldenRule teaches us all with patience and grace. I tried to find the question about Agape ; the wife, flowers and the homeless person but I know that God will remember this story.

GoldenRule makes Agape come alive for us. It was no longer just a word.

Gr cuts through the crapola and tells it like it is - not much patience there.

So the long view might be Gods but the short view belongs to each of us and as we plod through this old life, we keep adding things to our resume . For each neighbour  you touch, GR, patiently or impatiently, you are making another step towards change . We know that and God knows that. The long view is important but we only get there with short, sure steps.

My hat goes in with the patient on some things and very impatient on other things crowd.

I used to drive my wife crazy with patience for the old person shuffling along and not wanting to get too close so they don't feel rushed and being content staying behind or with service that seems slow or my driving like a Sunday driver no matter the day or letting people in front of me in places. I am always saying "do you have a pill too take?", "bitching won't make it faster", "I am not late for something", "in the grand scheme of things what does it matter?"... She is used to it now.

Yet, in so many other places I have no time and no patience. Where I am passionate, where things need fixed, yesterday was late already. It should not have waited for me or anyone else.

Illness changed my perception of all things related to time. I savour things like good moments, drives and coffee with hands wrapped and inhaling steam... In other places, I rush and go full steam ahead.

" Everything cometh to he who waiteth, so long as he who waiteth worketh like hell while he waiteth" (who knows the author?)

My favourite "Lost, yesterday, somewhere between Sunrise ans Sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for they are gone forever." --- Horace Mann

According to unreliable sources, the words were spoken by that great film character Charlie Chan who also said "Waiting for tomorrow waste of today.”
 

LB - who spent an entire summer watching Charlie Chan movies on the late night show

Kindness in heart much better than gold in bank.     

Charlie Chan in Paris (1935)

Indeed. And I realize that the old adage about patience still has its place. But I also believe that, as we "pick up the pace of life" we also have to pick up the pace of our response (whether that's good or bad is moot).

When the hinge on the door is a little squeeky, it can be well and good to say we'll oil it tomorrow. But when we can't open the door anymore because the hinge is rusted shut, there's a pretty clear indication more drastic and immediate action is needed.  The problem seems to be that we can't agree on the state of the hinge.

To pick up on StevieG's thought about "yesterday was too late", the real question is, "why are we content to let the hinge squeek in the first place."

You are always much too kind to me, my friend.  Thank you so much.

Amen to that my friend

Indeed, I could not agree more. And I might add that "impatience" shouldn't be confused with "anger". I can be joyfully impatient. I can move forward with laughter and enthusiasm. In fact, I'd suggest that it's when we allow ourselves to be overcome by the negative attitudes of the "not now, not here" crowd that joyful impatience is replaced by frustrated annoyance, dejected defeatism, and retributive reticence. (wheeeeee)

Which leads me over to the discussion on the ES thread.

Farmers, too, take the long view. Not quite like God, from eon to eon, but from season to season, anyway. A friend from the city visited us one day and saw that we (my family) were rasing calves, taking care of chickens, changing irrigation pipes, making hay, growing a large vegetable garden and putting a sumptous dinner on the table, all in a day's work and seemingly relaxed. "Where do you find the time to do all that?" my friend asked.

"Well," I answered, "when God made time, he made lots of it, free for the taking. It is easy to find."

I can certainly agree with GR, LB and RevMatt.

For some things I too am becomming impatient and for others my patience has grown.  At this point in the Anglican Communion I am running out of patience on the same sex issue to the point of heading towards being cynical.  Talk, talk, talk.  Put it off until next year or perhaps 5 years down the road.  This is nothing more than injustice in the name of the God of justice.

Shalom

Mate

I am told I have infinite patience.  I don't think I do.  I think that I have patience for those who don't know and are coming up to speed.  I think I have patience when we have differeing opinions and are trying to figure out how to dialogue.

I do not have patience for those who block out ideas, or emphatic "they know". For those, I used to walk away.  Now, with age, I determine how important is it to get through that...to name an injustice or correct a wrong.  If the only person they are hurting is themseles, then i am patient. If they are hurting / impacting others, I am more likely to go above, around and right through them if necessary.

GR, the dialogue here has been helpful to me, thanks for posting this thread.

Going off to do errands, and wll carry the image of the "squeeky hinges" with me...which ones are just an annoyance..and how much annoyance can a church take.  after all, that squeek may be being more disruptive than the actual rusted shut door, which demands immediate attention.