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- Want to know how patient you really are? Head to the grocery store.
Want to know how patient you really are? Head to the grocery store.
3 'patience traps' can be obstacles or opportunities
Nathan Harrison
September 29th, 2022
If you want to discover exactly how much patience you really have, stop what you're doing right now and go to the grocery store.
The parking lot will show you your tolerance for others.
The aisles will reveal the way you behave when hungry.
And the area near the check-out will test your resolve when you're dealing with decision fatigue after you've navigated all those aisles.
And here's the big takeaway: none of us is naturally patient. And you probably don't need the reminder that acting from impatience has an enormous cost: regret.
A Reminder from the Pastor to the Hebrews
We don't know the identity of the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, but we do know this: they were writing to a waiting audience.
More than that, they were writing to an audience they knew was on the verge of acting out of impatience. And not the impetuous, short-tempered type of impatience. This was a weary, fatigued, c'mon-God-how-long-do-we-really-have-to-deal-with-this type of impatience. The surrounding culture was becoming more hostile, and time was dragging on.
They'd heard and known of Jesus' talk of returning, yet nothing had happened.
Maybe he forgot?
Regardless, some were thinking it best to move on to something that looked more practical. Perhaps they could trust in something or someone more productive. At the very least, they were hungry for something that would bring a measure of progress beyond life as they were encountering it.
If you know that type of waiting, let Hebrews 11 be nourishment for you.
This writer pastors all of us by walking us through faith's hall of fame and points to our heritage: people whose circumstances tried to incite them to wrong-headed action - and invites us to right-hearted patience.
We're reminded of 3 trying sets of circumstances we eventually and repeatedly encounter.
1) When life is: not clear
To those of us who need everything to make sense, we're given the examples at the top of Hebrews 11.
By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.
By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.
Wheaton College grad, businessman, and writer Max De Pree summed it up perfectly when he said: “We do not grow by knowing all of the answers, but rather by living with the questions.”
2) When life is: not fair
For those of us who are attentive (perhaps overly attentive) to the state of those around us, we're presented a striking contrast in the middle of Hebrews 11.
And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again.
If I'm transparent, this is what I want every moment of faith in Jesus to look like. But it's not always what it does look like...as the writer points out next:
There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
Suddenly we're reminded: faith that God is present feels great in our victories, and it's refined and sustained when life isn't fair.
3) When life is: not yet
Sprinkled throughout the chapter is the reminder that for all of these examples, faith had a 'not yet' aspect: they were waiting for a Messiah in the midst of their circumstances.
By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised…
The writer goes on to share something we likely haven't thought much about: it's only together with us - who've received the very Messiah and salvation all these faith heroes waited for - that they're made perfect.
I don't know how it's all going to take place, but I anticipate a day in which we get to sit face-to-face with Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah. I imagine we'll have a meal with Gideon and Samson and David. We'll perhaps converse with the persecuted and the martyrs. And I suspect they'll ask a question:
"What was it like to face the not clear, not fair, not yet of life with the One we waited our entire lives for?"
And I pray that in that moment, we get to share how the presence of Jesus Christ - in the midst of all that - led us to live a life of faith.
At the very least, we can share how we did our trips to the grocery store differently.
Until next week,
Nathan