“Dear friends, don’t ignore this fact: One day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord isn’t slow to do what he promised, as some people think. Rather, he is patient for your sake. He doesn’t want to destroy anyone but wants all people to have an opportunity to turn to him and change the way they think and act.” (2 Peter 3:8-9 GW)
REFLECTION
Once, after quickly completing a puzzle, one of my young students pointed to her classmate and blurted out, “I am faster than you… you are so slow.” At first, her classmate and I were rather startled by the meanness spewing out from such a seemingly angelic face, but I then went on to remind her (and us) of the importance of kindness.
The pace of each precious person’s process is different, yet in the difference are opportunities for us all to prayerfully practice patience, cultivate kindness and grow in God’s grace. There are reasons in the roots beneath every process. Some people have had deeply traumatic experiences during childhood, which obviously impacts growth and development. While others quietly deal with unspeakable suffering behind a courageous smile as they help others move forward swiftly. We all have our own unique set of issues and, this side of heaven, we are all in an ongoing process of preparation and transformation. None of us are perfect and we all need the only perfectly patient One, who has set things up in such a way that we all need each other as we prayerfully process our respective issues. Because, at the end of the day, what really matters is deep connection: with our Maker and those He made. This is the key to true transformation, which is replete with the fruit of the Spirit: “…love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23 AMP)
PRAYER POEM
Loving Lord, thank You for Your perfect patience towards us. Help me to fully cooperate with You in all that I’m called to do. I pray for grace to be gracious to everyone, every day, come what may.
