Posts Tagged: impatience

“Leaving out a Crucial Detail”

On July 7, 2019 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

‘And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”’

(Exodus 32:21–24 The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, https://accordance.bible/link/read/ESVS#Ex._32:21)

I love this story.  It is an incredibly human narrative.  Moses “lollygags” around with God on Mount Sinai, while the people below get ants in their spiritual pants.  The people come to Aaron, the priest, and express their impatience with this slow-poke, Moses.  Aaron reacts immediately, instead of responding thoughtfully.  And voila: The golden calf!

This is not a funny story.  It is deadly serious.  And yet, even deadly serious stories can have some humor in them.  This one certainly does.

When Moses confronts his brother Aaron, Aaron explains—or excuses his behavior.

‘And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”’

When Aaron is telling the story to Moses, Aaron leaves out a crucial part of the story that the author of Exodus had already told the reader.

“3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 32:3-4, English Standard Version, emphasis mine)

When he speaks to Moses, Aaron leaves out the bit about his use of the engraving tool.  He says, “I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

Now, before I, before we, look down our long spiritual noses at Aaron, I/we might want to have a look in the mirror.  When we are explaining why we did what we ought not to have done, or have failed to do what we ought to have done, we all tend to leave out crucial details.  And in those crucial details are the real reasons why we’ve done what we shouldn’t, or not done what we should.

A crucial part of integrity is honesty, and a crucial part of honesty is being completely honest about our own part in what has gone wrong.  It is easy to pretend that something “just happened,” when in fact we happened it.

Healing and transformation can only occur when we acknowledge our own engraving tools.  Details matter—especially the details that relate to our own personal responsibility.

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PATIENCE!

On April 10, 2017 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

Lord, give me patience—right now!

Well, praying to God might help us to develop patience, but demanding it “right now” is probably not the best way to go.  After all, developing patience requires patience.

My sweetheart gave me a wonderful complement at Applebee’s over lunch.  We were celebrating getting our taxes done, and she said, “You are much more patient than you used to be.”

Getting a kind, encouraging word from anyone feels good.  Getting a kind, encouraging word from someone you love is off-the-charts good.

However, I will confess that, for me at least, even a little improvement in patience was a long stride toward becoming a better person.  I used to be one of the most impatient people I knew.  I was impatient with my wife and our children.  I was impatient on the road, at restaurants, in my professional life.  I was even impatient with God.

Mostly, I was impatient with me.

So, how have I become a more patient person?  I can answer that question with great confidence: I DON’T KNOW!  However, I might have some suspicions.

Time may have helped a bit.  However, I know plenty of old poops who are very impatient, so I’m not sure that merely living sixty-six years produces patience.  Still, patience is partly a function of living long enough to outlive your enemies—including your impatience.

Other people have modeled patience for me.  My mom, my father-in-law, friends—and above all my wife—have been incredibly patient with me.  They not only showed me that patience could be done.  They showed me how.

Then too, I became impatient with my impatience.  At least, I became impatient with the results of my impatience.  I finally discovered what should have been obvious all along: Impatience proves nothing, and improves even less.  When I finally got tired of being impatient, I began to get off of “my long-legged horse,” as my oldest son once said.  It is wonderful to get out of the saddle when you’ve been riding the impatience nag for so long.

Perhaps that prayer at the beginning of this post wasn’t too far off.  Perhaps we just need to delete a few words, and add a few other words.

“Lord, give me patience—in your own good time.”

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