patience is a...

"Patience is a virtue."
"Good things come to those who wait."
"Anything worth having is worth waiting for."

We have all heard these venerable saying about patience. Upon hearing them recited we may respond with an inward groaning. These are not the bits of advice upon which we earnestly wish to meditate. We want an answer. Waiting, resting, trusting, persevering; if only we could avoid these tedious virtues and get on with it.
Another haggard old proverb to which we often give little heed is, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." What does that even mean?
To rush ahead and take the prize before you have finished the race. To go ahead and DO SOMETHING before you are sure of the right thing to do. If you have ever bought something on credit because you didn't have the money to buy it when you wanted it, you may have been guilty of rushing in.
We live in a world of microwave cooking; drive-up fast food; downloadable TV, movies, and music; driving superfast on superhighways; loose-10 pounds-in-10 day fad diets; buy it now and don't and pay anything for six months; work from home part time and make $5000 a month; bad-credit-no-credit-no-problem; instant soup; instant oatmeal; instant breakfast; instant messages; instant credit; instant tax refund loans; well you get the idea.
If it is worth having, why wait, right?

The Bible's confronts our culture of instant gratification.

Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring [it] to pass.
And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.
Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him...
Psalms 37:3-7a

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but [when] the desire cometh, [it is] a tree of life.
Proverbs 13:12

In God's word we are not implored to practice patience as an aesthetic discipline. We are commanded to put our trust in God and to wait upon him for his perfect will to be accomplished. It is not waiting for waiting's sake. It is waiting upon the Lord to know him, to see Him at work in our lives, to give Him praise and glory, and to declare His works before men. If I am rushing ahead am I not like Sarai who tried to work out God's promise of making Abram a great nation in her own way?


And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
Genesis 16:2

It is only two verses later when Sara starts to regret having persuaded her husband in this matter. God had promised Abram "he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir." (Genesis 15:4b) Sarai saw her own barrenness and sought her own solution. If God had promised Abram an heir, and he had made her barren, then their must be some alternative way for Abram to sire an heir. The facts already showed that Sa rai herself wasn't going to be the one to give Abram a child, so she would find someone else to do it.

We need to ever be mindful of who we are putting our trust in lset our patience falter. If we turn aside to the righthand or to the left we will seek a practical solution instead of waiting for the miraculous one.

In the new testament book of Hebrews, Sarah (formally called Sarai) is mentioned in the great chapter on faith.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
For by it the elders obtained a good report.
Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 11:1,2+11; 12:-2

Why is she mentioned here? She seems to have a tract record of being impatient and unfaithful. Yet the Lord worked in her heart and it says she was given a child in her old age because she trusted God at his word. It is faith in the Lord, it is believing at his word that lets us "run with patience".

Lord, I look to you this day to do "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to [your] power that worketh in us". Help me to be patient because I am looking to you, and judging you as faithful who has promised it .-Amen

looking into the past

Altering the blog has been hard for me. I miss the warm green lushness of the springtime pictures, how they glowed with life.
I was so hopeful when I first posted a few months ago. It was January and winter was exercising a firm grasp yet spring reigned in my heart. I was looking forward with open eyes and heart, waiting on my Heavenly Father with eager expectation.
A few months have passed now and spring is lifting its splendid head. Daffodils have freed themselves from their long soil bound captivity, the air is crisp, rich with moisture and promise.
My heart is not ready to leave winter though, not ready for life to descend upon the farm that I have left behind. I look at the few pictures that I have of it from our recent visit and all is grey and sleeping. I cannot go back to winter. I cannot go back to my childhood home. I cannot curl up cozy cat style in front of the hearth while my grandmother busies herself in the kitchen. I need to find hope again yet my heart fails within me. Winter was my time of comfort, innocence from details, my refuge from facts and figures, mortgages and business plans. We had a dream then. We sheltered a hope within our breasts which we knew only the great and mighty God could accomplish yet I have let the immenseness of the thing wash over me. Now Lord, wash me in your immensity. Lift up my eyes from the waves and back to your countenance. With your great patient love teach my heart again to trust in your plan. All this impossibility can serve you.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
1 Corinthians 13:11-12

Since our visit last month to the farm we have had to face some facts. There are no programs available to help beginning farmers acquire land. Lenders require a fifteen percent down payment on farm purchases. The monthly payment on a loan of that size would be crippling at the outset anyway. Our prayer is that the Lord will use these obstacles to declare His greatness should he see fit to lead us back to my first home. I was a child. I am growing up.

"I do believe but help my unbelief I've seen hard times and I've been told There is a reason for it all" -Alison Krauss