Proverbs 14:29
It
can be difficult to be patient. I know, I drive to work on a highway populated
with twenty-somethings who have a death wish! They weave in and out of the
three lanes of traffic like they are trying to weave a tapestry with their
movements. But, I have to admit, it only takes one person on the on-ramp
talking on the cell phone and not paying any attention to the fact that the
traffic is going 70 and they are going 45, to get me weaving and passing.
Yikes!
Maybe
traffic doesn’t get you going, but I can bet there is something in life that
pushes your quick-tempered button. I wish I only had one button. How about you?
Sometimes
the reactions seem to come from nowhere. The look on someone’s face, a loud
bang, a sudden movement and it seems as though a point in the past is pulled
into the present and takes over. We all have these types of reactions to one
degree or another.
As
I sat here writing these words I was reminded of a moment in traffic in San
Antonio, TX. I was riding my motorcycle and someone crossed two lanes of
traffic and got right in my lane, right next to me, six inches from my handle
bars. There was nothing I could do. I was on a curve and I didn’t have the
ability to do anything. I was afraid if I made any change, I would get sucked
under his car and killed. As I sat here, the memory of that moment triggered
the same tightness in my body and feelings of “I’m going to die.”
Our
proverb today contrasts patience with a quick-temper and understanding with
folly. When we are patient we demonstrate a degree of understanding. As I think
about that other driver, talking to his friends, unaware of my presence right
next to his head, I would like to politely knock on his window and ask him to
kindly move out of my lane. Is that really what I want? You are right! I want
to smash his window and scream that he is trying to kill me!
One
part of me understands he was not trying to kill me. He didn’t even know I was
there. The other part wants him to understand the terror he caused deep within
me. Patience can grow out of this understanding. But if I let my perception of
that moment rule my understanding of the event, impatience results. When I feel
like someone is cutting it too closely, in that moment my body reminds me of
the motorcycle over twenty five years ago.
For
me, patience has so much to do with not taking things that other people do
personally. They are not trying to “get” me. They probably have no idea what
their actions did inside of me. When I understand that, and own it, I can then
choose in that moment to realize they are not trying to kill me, and I can
relax.
Patient
responses have positive long-term consequences. Quick-tempered ones are almost
always train wrecks beginning to happen.
What
pushes your buttons toward impatience?