Patience in a "Your Way, Right Away" world

It’s so hard to be patient. We live in a culture that wants things now.
In the 1990’s, Burger King had an advertisement that said, “Your way right away!” That has become the mantra of our society today.
Rather than eat healthy and exercise, we want pills and surgery to make us skinny.
Rather than save money to buy something, we run up credit cards so we can have it now.
Instead of developing and growing a relationship, we rush to bed with someone of the opposite sex to develop false intimacy.
Instead of starting with a small house and an inexpensive car, young adults buy outside of their standard of living to have the lifestyle their parents took years to get to.
I could go and on and on, but I hope you get the point.
As people of God, we live by a different standard. We should be patient and diligent as we both live in the present and look to the future. But we don’t always live that way.
When we are impatient, we tend to fall to one of two extremes. Either we don’t care or we get so anxious we try to numb our anxiety. Just think about all of the things we do to deal with our impatience when it comes to the suffering in this world.
Some people would rather escape and pretend everything is OK. Others want to swim in their despair. Some try to medicate their anxiety away.
Our society, which often lacks the perspective of the Kingdom of God, encourages all three. We offer books, movies, and television shows to help us “escape” from reality. Or, we are entertained by people whose lives are worse than ours so our problems don’t seem as bad.
Alcohol and drugs become numbing agents to help people escape, even if just for a little while, from the pain. Some music simply amplifies the anxiety, making it easier to remain in the darkness.
Let me conclude with Paul’s advice in his letter to the Colossian church…
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
(Colossians 1:9-14)

shine!
Jason