The Art of Patience

Posted by Bob Cornero on Thursday, June 19th 2008

19
Jun

I always like to share things that convict me, so this is a post from my friend, musical artist, and web-designer extraordinaire Jesiah Dzwonek. He’s currently based in Oregon and playing with the Paul Wright Band Rootdown. Check out more of his stuff at Upcast Magazine and Jesiah.com

Do any of us really have patience living in North America? Yes, sometimes we seem to be patient waiting for someone to finish whatever they’re doing but inside we’re wishing that it wouldn’t take so long. There is another type of patience, when we are content knowing of what will eventually come in due time.. the kind where we don’t even worry about the wait.

Lack of that kind of patience is the cause of why people are in and out of jobs, start relationships and then break up later down the road and the reason why we are eating unhealthy.

I find myself not wanting to spend the time cooking to make something healthy to eat, and I just see people get caught up in the “I need a girlfriend” because I want that lovely feeling now instead of later.

Now this way of thinking transcends to a lot of different situations and problems that we have in life.

We’re living like we want everyone “Now” instead of casting it to the “Future”.
Maybe a little faith would go a long way.
Patience and Faith are a lot alike!
Neither will be true until you become content in believing of what’s to come.

Truly when I say “you” I mean myself, but it makes it easier for me to write things this way and then read them back to myself to ponder.

Some of you may know that I’ve been dealing with the question of why some prayers heart desired prayers are never answered. I have come to realize through Scripture that there are some things that God has in His will for us that he is waiting for us to pray about and some things that aren’t in his will no matter how much we pray.

Funny how Psalm 40:1 states that David waited patiently upon the Lord and God heard his cry.

Maybe we shouldn’t be worried about how long God is taking to answer our prayers and learn to be content in knowing that he hears them.

If I could only learn to live this way I’m sure my life in this world and my relationship with God would really improve.

(Thanks to preciouskhyatt for the photo)

4 Comments Already

Alison Said,

June 19th, 2008 @2:35 am

I have come to realize through Scripture that there are some things that God has in His will for us that he is waiting for us to pray about and some things that aren’t in his will no matter how much we pray.

Or, there simply is no god.

You seem to discredit free will. I just don’t understand the appeal of such a religion. I prefer to be self-sufficient and work to create what I get in life. No, you don’t always get what you want, when you want, but at least you know you made the effort and didn’t rely on something that might not even exist.

Bob Cornero Said,

June 19th, 2008 @3:41 am

@Alison:
It’s funny, whenever I mention God online, specifically, the God mentioned in the Bible, people I don’t know want to argue with me. I don’t mean to sound annoyed. It’s just a consistent trend, and this blog hasn’t even been around that long…

First, I didn’t write this, my friend Jesiah did. I do however agree with it. I don’t discredit free will, to the contrary, I think God gives people free will and simultaneously retains full control of the universe. And I’m not trying to use reliance on God as an excuse for inaction. It never is, and in fact, if I’m to believe the Bible (which I do) God holds us accountable for every hour we have… which makes us all the more responsible for how we use our time.

My reasons for believing that there is a God are numerous and reasonable. Here is the rub; I can’t prove God’s existence to you, so I’m not going to try. If I really believe God is all-powerful (which I do), then He won’t have trouble proving himself to you. All I can say is that He has proved Himself to me and then live accordingly as a testament to that. There’s no point in the proverbial shoving of one’s religion down another’s throat, and nothing good can come from it.

My challenge to your statement is one of value of the person. You rightly identify that people “create what they get”, or in other words, somehow try to add value in their lives. But if that’s true, does that mean that others can take that value away? And if there is no God and thus, no natural law - because I challenge you to find a real ethical system in which there is no God, because even false religions supply some semblance of order to a society - how do you determine right or wrong? The argument breaks down to Right vs. Might. If you as a mere human being can add value to your life, then other mere human beings can take it away. People are at the mercy of the Mighty and the Mobs.

But what if your value as a person came from God? What if you are created in the image of God? Why is that thought so revolting?

Getting rid of God isn’t a new thought. In fact, it’s very old, and yet, it’s never been completely triumphant. People have been proclaiming God dead for centuries.

The reason I believe in the God of the Bible as opposed to other religions is because I see my own situation as complete helplessness in sin; I’m powerless to save myself. I recognize that I need a savior, which is found in Jesus.

And I think the meaning of those words escapes us largely today. For instance, what does the word “sin” mean? Forget the Sunday-school definition that sounds right, how does it apply to me in real terms? Quite frankly it’s that solitude of being, that utter alone-ness I feel when I do things my way. Some might call it self-sufficiency. I think that’s glorifying our desperate state as humans so that we don’t implode under our own existential weight. Because really, if you are jut one person out of billions, on one planet out of trillions, out of the entire universe, what does it even matter? Especially if there is no God.

You’re a blip. You’re here and then gone. In the cosmic sense, you could go a murderous killing spree and it wouldn’t matter. There is no morality, there is no meaning. I even used the word murderous in that sentence above… but that implies murder, a term that deals with justice or right and wrong…

But guess what? I don’t have to be alone and I know I’m not sufficient to save myself from myself and my own destructive ways! I need a savior to come and rescue me from this body of sin and I’m broken enough to admit that! And I say that with an exclamation, because Hallelujah, he has proven he is the savior because he was crucified and died and rose again, beating death and hell and sin.

When confronted with this truth, I find this to be true: people either accept this and turn to God, or they continue to walk alone because they want to do what they want to do. I don’t say this to sound like a prude, but the quote generally goes that men continue in their disbelief because they want to pursue their own carnal lusts. It’s not even a matter of “if” God exists. It’s a complete rejection of God.

But of course, it doesn’t have to be that way. One of my favorite teachers whom I’m going to study under in just over a week at Oxford in England is Ravi Zacharias. He has this excellent lecture on the existence of God. Give it a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id2Ik4whVr8

Bethany Said,

June 20th, 2008 @11:01 am

I completely agree with Jesiah’s point of view. The twenty-first century waits for no man and especially not God. But God is outside of time so even though we may think he’s taking a while to answer, it could just be because he does things on his own schedule.

And on a side note, it’s our faith in God that gives us patience. It’s our faith that makes us understand that we don’t need everything now and we can wait till later.

(Or we could have it Now And Later! )