32 years ago today, March 20th (boy that seems like such a long time ago and yet it doesn't!) I gave my senior sermon at Prairie High School and spoke on patience using James 1:2-4. In that 5 minute sermonette I boldly proclaimed that I felt I had learnt patience after going through health problems and having to drop out of school in grade 11. I was so sure that God had given me the strength to endure and in retrospect it was like I was boldly proclaiming I asked God for patience and I got it now! Well was I ever in for a rude awakening as four days later I developed a more intense period of asthma and allergies which saw me basically spend the last three months of my grade 12 year in my dorm room as I could not go anywhere without coughing fits all day! I said I had patience, but I was shown I really didn't know what I was boasting about!
Have you ever gone through times when you felt you had endured so much and that you needed patience to go through it? However you wanted God to operate on your time schedule as you wanted patience, but you wanted it now. You may have felt like Job but you were sure that you had endured enough so why wasn't God acting on your behalf.
Over the years, and yes I am still learning patience and I am not there yet :), I have come to realize that God is the one to be in control of my circumstances not me. The Old Testament saint, Job had to learn this lesson too. Even though Job may have considered himself very righteous, and indeed God viewed him as more righteous than many others, Job had to come to the point of realization that God had him go through situations so that Job could be stronger spiritually. I believe it is at that point in our own lives when we recognize God knows, even though we don't understand, what is best. Yes in the midst of the trial it may and will seem difficult as I have found a little bit in my life and I know a number of my friends know more of as they have gone through some trying times lately but as we endure God will give us patience to endure.
So even though as that very young 17 year old who gave his sermonette about patience and having learned it, found out, God wants us to learn the true meaning of patience for as James 1:2-4 says: "Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way." (The Message) Patience is a difficult gift to receive but as we develop it God will see us through situations in life as we rely on Him.
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Good grief, Dan, how can you remember the exact day you gave your senior sermon? I don't even remember for sure what I spoke about (and I am fairly certain nobody else does either!) let alone what day it was! I DO remember preparing for it for what seemed like months. I also remember quite clearly my feeling of abject terror at even the THOUGHT of getting up there, let alone actually doing it. lol
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