How to Live Your Faith When Life Isn't Fair (4)

Habakkuk begins impatiently, "LORD, how long will I call for help [italics mine] and you not listen?" (1:2, CEB). 


This honestly expresses our human condition. If you're never impatient about something, then you're not being honest with yourself. While you may have more patience about some things than you do others, there is still a point in time when waiting exceeds your tolerance. 


Read through the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) for examples of Jesus' patience. Consistently compassionate, He is not consistently patient - especially with His disciples, who appear at times to be obstinately resisting what he is teaching them. 


Teaching his disciples, Jesus is clearly conscious of the limited time that He has with them. His impatience stresses the immediacy of their need to learn and live. Similarly, Habakkuk's impatience with God expresses the prophet's concern for the urgency of the people's need.


I've observed that when we pray for patience, God's response often seems to allow our continued waiting. Instead of interpreting that as unanswered prayer, we can understand it as an opportunity to perceive 'time' in a different way, to re-focus the immediate into the larger context of the whole of life. We can also seek clarity about the catalyst of our impatience, discerning if our emotions are stirred from selfishness or selflessness. 


Is my impatience about me; or, about my interest in and concern for someone else?


Habakkuk's impatience is selfless. Even as he, too, may be a victim, his impatience is for others, not with them.

Questions:

• When has your impatience been clearly for yourself?
• When has your impatience been for someone else?
• The Bible presents patience as a desirable quality; Galatians 5 identifies it a "fruit of the Spirit."  How does your patience express your faith?