True Patience
I’m not patient. Maybe you can relate, in which case, welcome to humanity! In all seriousness though, patience (or a lack thereof) can be a big issue for a lot of us. I, for one, sometimes even think I’m being patient when I’m really not.
My impatience has led to an interesting dilemma; I tend to practice what I call “forced patience.” That probably sounds really strange and complicated, so allow me to explain. Forced patience would involve a situation where there’s absolutely nothing else I can do (because I’ve exhausted all my options), so I just accept my waiting sentence and put the “patience” label on it. This seems right enough in my head, but is it really?
I’ve written before about the fact that (as is clearly seen in the Bible) God ultimately cares about our hearts, our inner selves. Whatever attitudes we harbor in our hearts reflect our true nature and will eventually make themselves visible.
On this note, it should be easy to see that there is a difference between waiting because we have to, and trusting God in our waiting. One is a forced response to circumstances, while the other (true patience) is giving our situation to God from the beginning and allowing Him to have control. On that note, it’s ideal to give the situation to God from the start, but it’s also never too late to surrender to Him! In what situations in your life can you practice deliberate and voluntary patience?
Summer Reading List
One of my friends did this on her blog and I thought it was a really neat idea.
The following are the books that I plan to read this summer (though this list may grow before long). Clicking each title gives you a book description.
- Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte. (I’m actually already about 3/4 of the way through this one)
- Revolution In World Missions - K.P. Yohannan. (Just started this, I’ve heard a lot of great things about it as well as his organization Gospel for Asia)
- The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald. (Mixed reviews on The Great Gatsby, but it’s fairly short and it’s a classic)
- Forgotten God - Francis Chan. (I love Francis Chan and I recently got this book for free in eBook form)
- A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens. (It was the best of times, it was the worst of times)
- Erasing Hell - Francis Chan. (This is another that I got for free online)
