One of my most formative moments of the last few years happened in front of a Chick-Fil-A. It was a Tuesday evening, and I was coming back from a funeral I had just finished conducting in another town. There was a very tight window between the end of that funeral service and the beginning of an important meeting I had scheduled for that day, so I was in a bit of a hurry. Traffic was building as I moved through the city, and I was deftly navigating the evening commute in my frantic rush to get where I needed to be.
Just then, I caught the stop light in front of Chick-Fil-A.
I sat there a while, impatiently tapping my foot while I waited for the light to turn. It was then that my impatient tapping was interrupted by a loud crunch and a sudden jerk forward. Yep, I had just been rear-ended.
I’ll spare you the play-by-play, but I sat there, waiting for the police to come for the next hour and a half. Many things raced through my mind that day, but few were edifying or holy. I hate being late. Like really hate it. Yet, here I was, powerless to affect the circumstances, just waiting.
And waiting.
Aaaand waiting.
I asked many questions that day, but they all revolved around the same basic, big question: didn’t God know how busy I was? I mean, I can sanitize that question many different ways (for instance, “why did this happen?” or “what will I do now that my schedule is totally off?” or “how will they ever conduct this meeting without ME?”), but in effect, that is precisely what I was saying. I found myself mad at God for frustrating my schedule.
I suspect I’m not the only person that experiences this from time to time. It’s an extremely frustrating reality that the governance of the events in the universe is not somehow bound to prioritize itself around my calendar. But it really isn’t. So, I sat. And as I did, the Lord in His grace brought to bear an ugly, inconvenient truth in my life: I sometimes was impatient and demanding. I often want my schedule to operate perfectly, with no hiccups or imperfections along the way. But here is the reality: if our schedules operate perfectly, we would often miss some of the most helpful, painful, and formative experiences of our lives.
Scores of articles and blogs have been written on the need for patience in ministry, especially church replanting and revitalization. I completely affirm that this is true. I have found that there are two sides to this, however. First, there is the patience that we must have in dealing with messy people in messy churches. People are not projects; they are people. They change at the pace that they change. Your impatience simply won’t affect that in a good way. Churches are not projects; they are the body of Christ, purchased by Jesus Himself to be His holy possession. They change at the pace they change. Your impatience won’t affect that in a good way. This is a critical truth, that is really difficult to apply: if Jesus Christ Himself can be patient with hurting and messy people in a hurting and messy congregation, we should be able to as well. After all, it’s His church, not yours.
Second, there is the patience that we must have in doing ministry the way Jesus did ministry. Our congregation has been moving through the Gospel of Luke for over 2 years now (talk about patience! Maybe that’s the third patience: the patience a congregation must have with a long-winded preacher), and in doing so, there is a very predictable pattern Jesus follows. He stops often to speak with people in places who are doing things. Luke 9:51 marks the beginning of Jesus turning towards Jerusalem, which is inarguably the single most important event in the history of the world. Along the way, however, he heals people, tells stories, gets tired, commands the seas, and even stops to dine with the people that the world and the religious people had completely rejected. In fact, the large majority of Luke takes place while Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem. In the middle of this travel, Jesus took time for people. So should we.
Pastor, I know your schedule is busy. Just today, I had a full agenda of things I needed and wanted to get done. I got started early to get them finished and still didn’t get it all done. Tomorrow may likely be more of the same. I get it. But if we simply drive our to-do list down, if we do no more than work to get our own personal ministry agenda accomplished, we may fail to see the Divine appointments that God has planned for us. Or worse than that, we will get frustrated when God’s divine appointments interrupt my agenda. Be patient and be flexible. When opportunities to love people arise, be careful not to pass those up. When opportunities to reach the lost with the Gospel show up, take them. Hold on to your calendar loosely. God is not bound to orient His providence around your calendar or mine. But we will find our greatest joy when we plan, and then allow God to change those plans.
This isn’t true for just pastors, however. Homeschooling parent, allow for the fact that sometimes the day doesn’t go like you planned. Look for what God may be doing in the moments when that plan gets frustrated. It is, at a minimum, working to conform you to His image and teaching you to submit to His will. If you work outside the home, be prepared for the fact that sometimes traffic happens. Take the time to evaluate why God in His care for you has chosen that the very best thing for you in that moment is to be stuck in the middle of the interstate. It isn’t an accident. It’s providence. Retired person, consider why the routine of things that happened that day didn’t go exactly as planned. It isn’t an accident that things changed; it’s providence. We can grow so much when we simply commit to making a plan, making a calendar, and then being joyful when God reveals His plan by changing our calendar.
Who knows, it may be that sitting in front of a Chick-Fil-A may be exactly what your impatient soul needs.
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