Be patient and trust the process

I do not think I have blogged on this thought before. If I have, you are just getting a double dose!

At my last job, I was in charge of accounts for a rent to own company. My job was to call people and remind them that their payment was due. If that did not work, I was supposed to send out "friendly reminder," "7 day notice," and "termination" letters depending upon how late the customer was. In the meantime, I was also supposed to try to continue making telephone contact as well as going to their home if the other methods were not getting a response. If none of that worked, I had to mail out a certified letter to their home telling them that the company I worked for would consider prosecution if the situation was not remedied.

I am not the most patient person in the world, at least I used to not be. I would start to get frustrated with certain clients who never could seem to pay on time, nor could they be bothered (it seemed) to communicate with me what was going on. When I would begin to get flustered, my boss would remind me to "be patient, Ronnie, trust the process!" He always had a laugh when he said it, but the added touch of calling me "Ronnie" made it a bit more hilarious, relieving my stressful mood.

I see a spiritual component to this, although it wasn't intended as such obviously.

How often do we become frustrated with God? We pray, we pray, we pray. We pray some more! We might perhaps even try to bargain with God. We even perhaps beg Him to change things! We may tell Him we just "can't take it anymore!" I wonder if God looks down on us and says to us what my boss used to say to me? "Be patient, son/daughter, and trust the process!" Maybe He even has that slight giggle like my boss did when saying it?

Paul tells us in Philippians 1:6 that "being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it..." We can have confidence! God is going to do what He said He would do! Of course, Satan will attempt to fight us every step of the way, telling us that God has forgotten about us, or tell us that God has us on a back burner while He is "busy" doing things for other people.

God is working on that "good work" in my life right now. I used to get stressed out with what was going on in my life just as I would stress out over the work situation. I thought I needed to see the big picture. I was like the little kid (aren't we all sometimes?) who would quiz his parents every few miles asking "are we there yet?" "How much longer, God?" Then when things didn't work out as I planned (notice "AS I PLANNED!!!"), I would become frustrated, letting doubt, fear and defeat creep in. In effect, I was calling God a liar! Mind you, no, I didn't mean to call Him a liar, but I was.

Slowly but surely God is showing me I don't have to see the big picture. Like the old song tell us, "one day at a time, sweet Jesus, that's all I'm asking of You...." Take things one day at a time. Sometimes miracles do happen overnight, but many times God has to prepare us for that miracle. God has to take us through a refinement and learning process before He can release that miracle to us. If He simply gave us what we want when we wanted it, we would wind up in more misery than we could imagine. We are sometimes like the teenager who assumes they know everything, can handle everything, and like the J.G. Wentworth commercials, "it's my [blessing] and I want it now!"

In closing, I would tell you to be patient and trust God's process. He may take us along some roads and paths that do not seem to make sense to our human mind. Look at any number of Biblical faith heroes. Joseph was sold into slavery, winding up in prison before he ascended to second-in-command of Egypt. David was anointed king of Israel, but fled for his life before ascending to the kingship. Even Jesus Himself had to go through the wilderness temptations! Be patient and trust God's process.