Top Ten

My friend, Ken, is my Bible study leader at church. He is always well prepared, and he really enjoys the prep work. Ken is a retired physician who plays a lot of golf, so he can tell some good medical and golf stories that illustrate the Bible study.  

Our Bible study lessons are from Genesis this quarter, and last week’s subject was Noah and the ark. Ken focused on how impatient the people on the boat were because they had to wait another two months after the water had receded and they landed on the Ararat Mountain range in eastern Turkey. Noah told them that God would reveal to them when the time to disembark from the ark would be, and in the meantime, they just had to be patient.

I can’t imagine the disappointment these people experienced after all they had been through with the persecution for years before the flood, being confined to a rudderless boat for many months and feeding all those animals! I don’t know about you, but if I had been on that boat, I could not have waited for the answers to a lot of questions that had come to my mind during the last 10 months of floating around and seeing only water. Questions like: “Where did we land?” “Is there anything alive out there?” “Is the whole world just a bunch of mud?”

Now this is what is called a quick transition in a short story: David Letterman was famous for his nightly Top Ten Lists. So, here’s my top ten list of times when I was the most impatient and prayed the most for patience.

10. I was 10 years old, and this particular day the list of boys who would move from minor league to Little League was going to be read out after practice. I was lousy in practice that day because I was praying hard to God to just make it happen. He was probably listening to me, but I did not move up until the next year. I think this is when I learned what stress was about.

9. I prayed for patience dozens of times as our family was in the customs lane entering a West African country. We had footlockers full of important stuff to us, and we knew that the customs officials could confiscate anything that they wanted to. The whole family was praying for patience for Dad because he was always stressed out having to deal with these officials.

8. Waiting to drive. When I was 13, I learned to drive in a 1953 International pickup with a guy named Frank who worked for my dad. Frank was not allowed to take me on the road, so I had to drive in the pasture. We did not have leaner’s permits back then, but we could get our driver’s license at age 15. Waiting for two years to get my license and drive on the road was like decades long. I can’t imagine the number of times that I complained about that to my parents, and I every time their reply was the same: “You are so impatient. You need to learn how to be patient.”

7. Airline agents at check-in. We were a family of six and a dog standing in front of the airline agent. On more than one occasion we had a dozen or more footlockers to check and the agents would always either roll their eyes or give a silent expression of disgust. I guess it was because they had to lift them on the conveyor belts. I hated hearing things like “this one is four pounds over the maximum weight allowed. You will have to remove something.” There in the airport, we had to repack some baggage because we were a measly four pounds overweight. Counting to 10 backwards did not help my stress level and my impatience with the agent’s lack of professionalism and patience was exacerbated by four kids tired of waiting in line.

6. Patience as a teenaged soldier had his finger on his automatic weapon as he pointed it towards my family. Gendarmerie in West Africa loved to put a couple barrels or some pieces of wood across the road so that you had to stop and let them examine your car registration and personal ID. This was so annoying as these soldiers would be lounging around in the shade of a mango tree with nothing else to do but hassle drivers. They were always heavily armed, and they treated their weapons like an extension of their index finger while trying to find something wrong with your papers or vehicle so they might get a bribe out of you. Lots of patience exhibited hundreds of times when we were stopped because I wanted to tell them not to point their guns at my family, but I knew better.

5. Building a house. We have built three houses, and if you have built a house then you know how much patience you need with your contractor. The last two houses that we have built have been in the last 16 years, and both times the contractor was a friend of mine from our church before we ever started the construction. I am proud to say that both men are still my good friends. But that does not mean that I did not get impatient—not so much with them but with the sub-contractors. I am not friends with any of them!

4. When our two-year-old and three-year-old boys had to have all kinds of vaccinations for us to go live in France and West Africa. We were worried about what our boys had to go through for Cheryl and me to be obedient to God to go and serve Him in faraway places. They were absolute troopers about getting those injections, but I was impatient with the process that demanded that our infants have to suffer for our calling.

3. Dealing with a kerosene refrigerator. Most people will not understand this because they did not know such a thing exists. To maintain a temperature of about 65-68 degrees inside our kerosene refrigerator, the wick had to be trimmed perfectly to produce the blue flame needed for maximum service. No, that was not a typo. The average inside the house temperature was in the low nineties, so a refrigerator temperature 30 degrees lower is about the same as your electric stainless French doored refrigerator maintains in your home today.

2. Waiting to hear if you have cancer. As we waited for the lab and scan results for confirmation of cancer, both times we were told that we would get a call to tell us the results of the lab and scan work. Both times a nurse called us and said that I would have to come to the office to talk with the doctor about the results. In your heart you know that you have cancer, or they would not have asked you to return to the doctor’s office. But the wait for two more weeks to pass was a very stressful time, and my diligent prayers for patience were passed to the Heavenly Father several times a day.

1. When our children have experienced traumatic illnesses. Our daughter, Amanda, was only a couple weeks old. She was born with a midwife at a clinic in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. Soon after her birth she became very ill. We were concerned that we were going to lose her, and I became so impatient with God because He was not healing her. He did, regardless of my unbelief because of my impatience. We learned a lot during this illness. We have had other major medical challenges with our children including two of them fighting cancer, but God made us realize that our children are not our own. They belong to God, and He has given them to us to parent and steward. This released us from being impatient to see God work in our children when they have health struggles.

Even with all the dangerous circumstances in the world today, including health challenges, violence, and evil, we should continue to confidently trust in God’s powerful protection over us and those we care for.