The West Coast Wonderings Part 1: Patience
The smell of the Ocean is like nothing else in the world. And the taste of seawater will make you wish you brought a couple cough drops to counteract the saltiness. The siren call of wedding invitations brought me to make the pilgrimage back to my home state to celebrate close friends and family and the joyous season that only wedding bells declare. Of course as any sane Cali boy the only thing I could do upon reaching the coast is get in the water. So the instant I had a moment I dragged my dad and the dog to the local surf spot and jumped in the water. It has been nearly three years since I last wore my seal suit and jumped on the epoxy buoy and to say I was rusty was an understatement. Only after an hour or so, I found myself back on the shore for a moment to catch my breath and watch the tide break.
I need a little patience, I thought to myself as two teenagers jumped into the white foam. It's funny, I had just talked to a friend about how it felt like my whole life was just one long lesson in patience and grace. After watching the two kooks out there I finally got some courage and gave the swell one more shot, and with plenty of patience, I was able to get my stride and enjoy the waves.
The topic of patience has come up a lot lately whether it be with family, seasons or the moon's effect on the Earth’s oceans. I think that's why patience is considered such a virtue. To be patient is to actively not lose heart for a future hope. It shows a great ability to persevere through delays and suffering without ever becoming annoyed or upset. I don’t know about you but sometimes I just want to take some people by the shoulders and shake them because of how frustrating they have become. Especially in the current state of my ministry, I have found it increasingly frustrating when something I worked so hard on didn’t come to fruition.
But that's the thing with patience, in this state you are expectant of that future hope but are willing to wait until that future hope is consummated. As I was out in the waves, I saw the exact imprint of patience. While waiting for the next wave, I paddled hard passing the waves that had already broken, the ones just barely formed, and the occasional other surfer. It's an active state to get to the moment where just before the wave breaks you catch enough speed to get up and enjoy the fruit of all that paddling. It’s a perfect storm of your hard pressing work and the wave that God has supplied you.
There is this one psychological phenomena that so many of us have a love hate relationship with: Delayed gratification. It is this term to describe forgoing small immediate pleasure for a larger future one in the future. Think instead of eating an entire sweet potato pie when it gets out of the oven and instead wait for it to set and then put it in the fridge to let it chill overnight. Then transporting it 15 miles to grandma’s house on thanksgiving, and then even still having to wait hours until after dinner to get one slice. Okay, just me? Well fill in your own favorite dessert and insert it into the story. It’s taking something you want now and saving it for later. Pondering whether this big purchase is worth the money, waiting to satisfy your sweet tooth, really pondering whether or not you should ask this girl out. It takes true work to delay gratification and be patient.
Patience goes beyond us, it's about the race of life and deciding whether or not you want to be an active participant. That is just what the Gospel of the kingdom is as well. A collision of space and time that not only hits now but also has a much anticipated future reality.The future fruition of God’s promises and our hopes.
Patience is paddling out into the water with enough trust that eventually, just maybe, we will catch that wave.
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I have three parts to these wonderings, which I plan on releasing every few days or so. This first one is just a piece of the bigger puzzle. Part 2 is on Grace. Part 3 is on priceless conversations.
