Here I am sitting in a diagnostic lab, on the second floor, just down the hall from Elevator A. I am waiting for Milton to be called back for blood work. Key words of that sentence are … I am waiting. That’s what we do nowadays.
We wait to be scheduled. We wait to be called back. We wait to see the doctor. We wait for scans and reports and diagnoses. We wait for phone calls and updates to e-charts. We sit in some kind of diagnostic time warp, where time seems to stand still. Our time is not our own. We now know the meaning of being a “patient”. Our patience is being tried, or better yet, forged. We are becoming patient, but it is a process.
Why do they call one a patient? Why not a client? Or candidate for medical services, or partner for health… or something else besides patient? Positive phrasing, I guess, suggesting our best posture for the journey ahead is patience.
It is not just a suggestion but a challenge, too. A call to be patient, beyond my natural abilities. That is when I know I must call upon a Greater Resource. God who is Love (1John 4:8) is also patient (1 Cor 13:4). He is patient with me when I am exhausted. He is patient with me when I am irritable. He is patient with me when I am selfish. He waits for me to release my tight-fisted control into his hands. He waits for me to let go of all my expectations and demands. In his graciousness, He waits until I am ready to concede my way to his. When I do (which takes alot longer than you might think) I feel the rush of peaceful patience flood over me. Somehow patience requires a great “letting go”. The letting go of “me” brings peace. In the letting go, I am wrapped up into the infinite loving Patience of God. Time is less the master, and I am freed from its tyranny. In this mindset I could sit here all day long.
Well, I’ve gone on too long now. I keep telling myself not to do that. But I’ve got time on my hands. Just some reflections on what the patience of God is teaching me. Are you waiting on something, or someone? Let go and let God, as they say. And the Lord God “will keep in perfect peace” those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in him. (Isaiah 26:3)
