Worthy of Patience - Crafting a Heart for Jesus

 

Another week, another post from Ryan.  I hope you'll enjoy this feature, a fresh perspective from someone who isn't me. :) I will admit that this post is a heavy one but I also think it is beneficial in remembering how to posture ourselves in this scary world we live in.  Feel free to leave comments with questions, Ryan is great to answer them.

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My post last week was inspired by the impending need to purchase a car. I had enough money
to purchase something more than rolling scrap, but not enough to purchase something really
nice (at least by most definitions of word). So I searched. And I searched. Many car
descriptions read something like, “Wonderful car, super reliable, 270k miles, needs head gasket
and transmission. $4,000 firm. No tire kickers. This car is awesome.” It made me think of an
image I saw once. It was a bucket of water with a carrot floating in it. The caption read,
“Snowman for sale. Needs some work.”

Put simply, my search was frustrating. I’m not afraid of working on a car (not anymore at least).
But I’m not paying a ton of money for a car with high mileage that needs a bunch of stuff.
That’s just dumb. What made matters worse is that I had three separate rays of sunshine that
were all ruined. Each was a wonderful car in its own way, and I had a verbal agreement with
the owner of each car to come see it with the intention of purchasing it. Two of these cars
were over three hours from me, but the travel was worth it for a solid car. Each owner sold the
car out from under me between the time of our agreement and the time I was supposed to see
the car. One owner didn’t even bother to inform me. He just stopped answering my calls.
This is why I hate making decisions. Everything goes wrong and I’m left thinking, “What on
earth am I supposed to do? This is the life of an adult, but I feel like I lost the instruction
manual.” This used to be worse. Growing up without a dad, I used to be terrified of guy-stuff.
Guns, cars, hunting, fishing…I knew nothing about any of it, and I knew eventually people would
figure that out and somehow it would ruin my life. Here’s how bad this got. When I was much
younger, I literally traded in one of my cars because the alternator was going out. For those
who do not know anything about cars, that’s maybe a $200 fix. It’s something most people
could probably do in their driveway with the help of YouTube and a friend. But I was so
terrified of my car not working that I just found a dealership that would take it, and I bought
something else. What’s worse is that isn’t the only time I’ve done that.

This leads me to my current predicament. There’s still a part of me that is terrified about
getting in over my head on a car and having to trade it in somewhere. There’s this part deep
down inside that says, “You don’t know what you’re talking about! Everything is going to fall
apart, and you’ll be ruined! You won’t have any money and people will laugh at you!”
But here’s the thing, even if the car I buy is a complete heap of junk, my life isn’t going to be
ruined. It’s like I said last week, there isn’t some magical right answer. With any car (or all sorts
of other things in life) we need to learn one thing: patience. I know that’s a dirty word for a lot
of people, but is it vital. Patience is the habit of taking a breath in the midst of chaos to let the
waters calm down and see what God is doing. It’s the part of our character that looks at
disarray and says, “Well God’s going to fix this somehow. Let’s watch what he does.”

It’s like fixing a car. When something breaks, it isn’t a sign that the world is ending. It’s a sign
that the world isn’t perfect. It’s an opportunity for repair, restoration, and even improvement.
Sure, it’s frustrating. Let me tell you, I decided on buying a ’62 Mercury Comet with no
insulation or weather-stripping…and it’s cold outside. I’m literally driving to work in a shirt,
sweater, jacket, gloves, hat…and a Wolverine Snuggie. This is not what I’d call fun. But it’s
what I’ve chosen. All these things can and will be fixed. Periodically we have a warm day, and I
get to remind myself how much I really love this car. Sometimes I’ll stop at a gas station and
have an impromptu conversation with someone who likes it, and it brightens my day. But I
have a lot of cold drives ahead of me before my car is what I’d like it to be.

Whatever you are going through and no matter what you have to do to get through it…please
remember, it can and will be fixed. Someday, somehow this area of your life will be repaired,
restored. And on that sunny day, you will be able to enjoy something new with our father.
That is worthy of patience.

Ryan blogs over at Home Cooked Jesus {the Jesus you need for the day to day and not just Sundays}.  He is also what I consider a Bible scholar, though he would disagree on technicality.  He studies Hebrew and teaches at a local bible college while pursuing a masters degree in the biblical field.