Got Patience?

Psalm 40

I've been living with a stomach flu since yesterday morning. Without going into too much detail, since yesterday's breakfast I haven't been able to hold down, or in, a meal. It's a test of will for me as I like to eat tasty, spicy food.

As I age I notice that my body, and especially my stomach, reacts differently to certain foods. Tomato sauce doesn't sit well, and neither does broccoli, fried chicken, red meat, and other foods which I thoroughly enjoyed in my younger days. Of course I still enjoy some of these foods, I just have to watch how much of them I eat.

As I work through this stomach bug, I have to show a lot of patience so I don't rush into eating something that might cause whatever is going on in there to flare up again. To help me get through it, and to reinforce my patience, I keep in mind that I need to be healthy in order for me to be able to go to work and help my wife with our daily living expenses. I also keep in mind how there are others who depend on me in different ways, and a healthy me is much better than a not-healthy me.

Patience in certain areas of our lives don't come as easy as we would like it to. For some of us it's truly a battle between getting what we need or want immediately or waiting for it. For some of us what we're waiting for is really important and we honestly can't wait. In the same way, some of us understand that there are other things involved in the process and we trust that the things we need or want will eventually happen.

It's in that trust, the trust that there are other things involved in the process towards getting the things we need, that today's Psalm is talking about.

Most commentaries agree that this Psalm can be attributed to King David in some way. The commentaries argue about who the actual author is, but for our purpose we will agree that the Psalm is about what King David is going through. The thing the commentaries agree he is going through is a thankfulness that God has delivered him from a very difficult time in his life. The Psalm was written to say thank you for bringing King David out of a bad place and to pledge a commitment to continue trusting in God.

The latter part of that reason for the Psalm, the pledge to continue trusting in God, is where some of us fall short. We often forget to trust that God is always by our side, sharing in our pains and joys as we walk our life journey. Somehow we expect that when we pray for things to get better, we can simply sit back and wait for things to get better. When things don't get better we lose trust in God, we even think that maybe we deserve whatever we're going through and begin to believe God is trying to teach us a lesson.

God is not vengeful. God does not punish us by making us go through bad times. God has nothing but love for us and when we firmly believe that, when we have unadulterated trust in that belief, going through the difficult times in our life is made a little easier. It's in the belief that we have a God who never leaves us that we can find the patience we need to get through the things in life which challenge us.

Today I will only be able to eat crackers and drink tea. It's going to take a lot of patience not to have some of that leftover fried chicken sitting in the refrigerator. But I trust that chicken will still be there tomorrow and maybe, just maybe, I can have it then.