Paving, Produce and Patience

It's been a hectic day - even though all I've done is shop. Everywhere I went seemed to be busy, crammed with cars and people and shopping carts. It's been a good day for some lessons in patience.

It all started this morning when Mom, Travis and I went out to get a birthday present for a friend of mine and for Travis to spend some of his birthday money. It was only ten minutes from home when we hit it. Construction. In Nova Scotia, summer is practically synonymous with orange construction signs - by the mall, on the highway, on the back roads, seemingly everywhere. And for the last few weeks, crews have been working on paving the road we drive down every day, the road we cannot detour around. That means we get stopped - a lot. This morning was no exception. This was the first lesson in patience.

Then we went shopping, to the grocery store and the book store and the toy store and then ending at Wal-Mart with its brand-new produce section. Mom attests that this was the busiest she had ever seen the store, even moreso than Christmas. The place was chaotic, the produce section psychotic. There were people everywhere! The best part was when we had to go to the hardware section to pick up spackle for Dad; it was the quietest part of the store! But when we had to go back to the produce section to pick up some store-made pizza - this was the second lesson in patience.

Patience is a virtue is one of Mom's favourite mantras. And it's true. But it's also hard. As I was thinking about this very thing, I found myself going back to Galatians 5:22 to talk about patience, where it's listed as a fruit of the spirit, and I thought about how we as the Christian culture often extol patience, which is absolutely right I may add. But often we don't look a few verses before Galatians 5:22, at what comes before this list of Christian fruit.

"Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." ~ Galatians 5:19-21

Impurity. Idolatry. Enmity. Strife. Jealousy. Fits of anger. Uh-huh. I probably committed all those today, just in my impatience. Every time I lost my patience, I was reveling in works of the flesh, not in fruit of the Spirit. I was choosing sin over godliness, selfishness over worship. Extolling patience is good and necessary, but showing impatience for what it truly is is also necessary sometimes. For in seeing the horror of the bad, you see the virtue in the good.

So between the paving and the produce and everything in between today, I've learned quite a bit about patience. Now if this post would just hurry up and publish, I can start applying it ...