Can We Find You in the ‘Impatient’ Parking Lot?

When I was a newspaper editor, there were a few embarrassing moments when we overlooked obvious typos in large headlines. The problem with newspapers on actual paper is that once they’ve been printed and distributed, you can’t press autocorrect and fix errors.

 

I can’t recall the specific instances, but I’ll never forget the feeling of egg-on-face when I picked up one of the papers and spotted the error. Why those stood out like sore thumbs after being printed but seemed invisible prior to that, I never figured out. In today’s digital age, newspapers, blogs and Internet sites have the luxury of being able to correct typos, hoping they were caught before anyone noticed.

 

Do hospitals
need proofreaders?

Imagine how the person felt who produced the large metal sign for a hospital that read, “Impatient Parking.” In-patient, impatient. They’re close, aren’t they? I have no idea how long that sign stood proudly before someone picked up on the problem. But the sign might really have been more accurate. Actually, a sign that reads ‘Patient Parking’ seems like an oxymoron.

 

Because if you’ve ever gone to a doctor’s office or a hospital, you quickly realize that while physicians are instructed to ‘have patients,’ the patients themselves are required to have patience – and lots of it.

 

The issue of patience vs. impatience isn’t restricted to medical facilities and offices, of course. When I’ve sat behind the wheel of my car at a traffic light that’s slow to turn, you could describe my idling vehicle as impatient parking. The same applies to waiting while a shopper at the supermarket leisurely loads his or her groceries into their car while I sit restlessly waiting for them to move so I can claim their parking spot.

 

It boils down to this: I wouldn’t mind waiting if it didn’t take so long. Impatience has been a defining characteristic for much of my life. I’ve never been good at ‘hurry up and wait.’ That’s probably true for more of us than we’d like to admit. Some societies around the world might choose to proceed at slower, more relaxing paces, but many of us in America have grown accustomed to marching orders like “ASAP,” “stat!” and "immediately – if not sooner.”

 

This can present problems for us spiritually. Because God works at His own pace, and often it’s not at all the pace we’d prefer. In fact, one of the common traits of a growing, fruitful follower of Jesus Christ, as described in Galatians 5:22-23, is patience: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control….”

 

Why is this? Because the Lord operates according to His own schedule. Like it or not, it’s always perfect. Not early, not late; just right on time. Consider Philippians 1:6, which declares, “being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” 

 

At those times when I attempt to assess my spiritual progress, I typically shake my head in dismay considering how far I am from where I think I should be. The verse above does give me hope and encouragement, since it promises that what God has started in our lives He’s determined to finish.

 

Many of us would like to think we’re making a difference in this world, being used by God in some small way to participate in what He’s doing, but sometimes it seems like nothing is happening. This is when we need to read and meditate on verses like Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

 

In another of his epistles, the apostle Paul expresses similar sentiments to believers in ancient Corinth, a very pagan, ungodly city. He admonished them, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

 

When we think about it, the Christian life is a continual exercise of patience, clinging to faith even when circumstances seem beyond hope. As Paul wrote to Christ followers in Rome, “…but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Romans 8:23-25).

So, if you find yourself in the “Impatient Parking” lot, you’re not alone. But we should take heart. God’s not finished with us yet. He’s busy completing the work He began in us, as well as the world around us. As an older New American Standard translation phrases it, “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”