We all experience the tremendous pace of modern living. We travel in supersonic planes, and spend millions on instant methods of communication. We don’t like to wait for anything. Everything needs to be now. But it’s possible to run so fast that we forget some age-old facts about living. A lot of things in our world can’t be rushed. We have to be patient and learn how to wait. One of those things is with our own growth and development. We can become easily discouraged with ourselves and just give up. But the greatest mistake we can make is to give up too soon. Real achievement does not come from finding things easy but from wrestling with things that are difficult and may even seem impossible. Someone said once that a person’s greatest glory is not in never falling down but in rising every time he or she falls. Great people lose battles just as the rest of us do. Their greatness rests in their refusing to accept defeat. A second place patience is important is with others. Thomas Edison’s teacher said that he was too dull to learn. It can be difficult to remember that some of the most beautiful flowers are late to bloom and the same can be true about people. Some of the people we know as saints had early blemished records. St. Augustine is a perfect example. Consider our children. Many of them go down some wrong roads before they find the right one. If we gave up on them too early they might never find the good road. A third place we need patience is with God. Many times we wonder what He is doing and question whether He is there at all. Everything seems to be going wrong in the world. Where is He? Often we do not see how He is working until we get far enough down the road to look back. When the Jewish people were exiles in Babylon, they could not see that God would, after a generation, restore them to Israel. But He was at work even though they did not see how. God never permanently sides with brutality, cruelty, and injustice. In His time, He rights the wrong. For example, Hitler predicted that the Third Reich would last 1000 years. He missed by 988. Many things that are good take time. We need to remember that.
