Waiting
Blessed and loving God, you give us your Word to guide us and we get too busy to pay attention. Give us patience to hear you and patience to listen to you. Give us patience as we carry out our ministries in your name. Amen
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23
Traveling recently to Spokane as a delegate to the Women of the ELCA Triennium, I arrived at the Cleveland airport 2 hours early for my 10:30 a.m. flight. I checked in, went through security and found my gate. Soon there was an announcement that our flight was delayed 45 minutes and there was a gate change. I walked to the new gate and settled in with my book. After awhile I decided to stretch my legs and took a walk. As I passed the departure monitor, I noticed my flight was now canceled. Since there was no one at the new gate, I went back to the original one to ask questions. I was the second person in line when the attendant left! After a few moments, I started back to the second gate, when I saw everyone from that gate headed to where I was. I turned around and followed them, hearing the news that we all needed to be rebooked. Now I was the 9th person in that line! After another long wait it was my turn. When I told the attendant where I needed to go, she said, “Oh yeah . . . you are the one I was looking at downstairs . . . I’m not sure what we can do for you!” For the next 25 minutes I waited patiently while I heard others around me grumbling... Finally she told me that the flight leaving in twelve minutes might have a seat for me . . . but I was on standby.
My name was called to get my boarding pass and I stepped to the desk to be handed the very last seat on the very last possible flight to get me to my destination that day. I was handed FIRST CLASS pass, complete with dinner and beverages of choice! I didn’t even mind that I was going to get to my Spokane hotel at about midnight.
I will never know whether that first class seat was a reward for my patience or just the luck of the draw, but what a gift and what a reminder that patience is one of the fruits of the Spirit. And, that often as Christian educators, we do need patience; patience as we work with committees and staffs; patience with parents and programming; patience when the best laid plans don’t work the way we want them to. How important for us to remember the patience God must exercise with each of us and model our behavior in like manner.