I heard the story and it made me smile. His father wanted him to learn lessons and understand the value of hard work before he allowed him more responsibility within his organization. His job for the summer was on a roofing crew and as a younger less experienced member of the team, he received the grunt jobs, like getting supplies up to the roof. Climbing a ladder in the heat of the day isn’t fun, but he decided if he could get them up to the top quicker, he could take a longer rest period. So, up he went with as much as he could carry and as quickly as he could. Not surprisingly, a few rungs up his load shifted and he lost his footing. Down he came, supplies flying everywhere and luckily, he grabbed a rung on the way down slowing his fall. But he did hit the ground and thankfully wasn’t hurt. Dad heard about it and went to see him. After verifying his health, he imparted some words of wisdom. “Son, you can’t get to the top of the ladder in one step, but you sure can get to the bottom.”
If I’m honest, patience was not my strongest suit at the start of my career. I always wanted to move quickly in whatever I was working on. I was driven and didn’t think I needed to be patient. As with most of us, I learned about patience the hard way and over time. If you want patience and say a quick prayer for it, “Lord, give me patience”, if he grants it, I imagine it won’t come quickly. You can only learn patience with time.
Patience is important but it can feel uncomfortable. We believe we are ready, but if we are impatient, it can be costly. Patience is needed in life for several reasons.
We aren’t ready – When I was younger, I always thought I was ready. Looking back, I must admit I was wrong. I needed time to learn things in preparation for whatever was coming next. I earned a driver’s license at 16, which entitled me to drive without a licensed driver with me, and I assumed I was ready to drive anywhere. I wasn’t because I had much, much more to learn about driving. A high school freshman may have skills for a JV team or maybe even varsity but moving them up too quickly might limit their growth, not enhance it because they aren’t emotionally ready. A first-time supervisor doesn’t start out managing 100-200 employees, they begin the learning process by managing a small group first. We need patience because others see what we can’t see at that time, that we aren’t yet ready and have things to learn.
Some things can’t be rushed – In life we learn there are some things that just can’t be rushed. When we learned my wife was pregnant with our first child, I was excited, then had to learn patience as it took another almost eight months until he was born because he decided to stay in the womb longer than planned. Cooking is another example. If you turn up the heat on ingredients to do it more quickly, the food will never taste good, it loses its flavor. Two of my favorite foods, risotto and fudge, take a long time to make and whenever I’ve rushed it, I was disappointed with the results. Relationships take time to develop too because they are built on trust. Trust can’t be rushed because each person is different. Some give trust freely; others make the other person earn their trust. When you couple that with each person’s past experiences where trust may have been violated, the relationship process may take longer to develop. Patience is needed.
Something or someone isn’t ready – Unless you are selling a home in a frenzied sellers’ market, you’ll need patience because the buyer for your house may not be ready the day you list your home. You can get plenty of traffic, but you need your buyer. Rushing to get a buyer can come with costly mistakes or you can be patient and let them get ready for your home. Over the years, I’ve watched people make poor career choices because of impatience. They feel they are ready for the “next step” and if it doesn’t happen quick enough in their organization, they jump to another that isn’t a good match for them. They have the job they wanted, but they are working for someone who isn’t the right person to develop them or find out the job was available because their new supervisor churns through people. If they had waited a little longer, the better job for them would have opened up where they were. Patience is needed to wait for the right opportunity, not just an opportunity.
I wish patience would come easier but it’s one of those things that takes time to develop.
So at last Pharaoh let the people go. God did not lead them through the land of the Philistines, although that was the most direct route from Egypt to the Promised Land. The reason was that God felt the people might become discouraged by having to fight their way through, even though they had left Egypt armed; he thought they might return to Egypt. Instead, God led them along a route through the Red Sea wilderness. Exodus 13:17-18 (TLB)
