Blog 3189 – 07.25.2024

Patience

Yesterday, I spent five hours at the doctor’s office mostly waiting, to see the doctor, and waiting to get blood drawn at the lab just down the hall from the doctor’s office. The lab technician thanked me for my patience and I told her that three years in the Army when I was a young man taught me patience. “Hurry up, and wait” was a truism about Army life that I have carried with me all these years, almost fifty-five years and counting.

Many things are said about patience:

Patience is a virtue

It is something everyone needs, not just doctors

Don’t lose your patience

Patience is also first on the list of the Apostle Paul’s chapter defining what love is, First Corinthians Chapter 13:

In a phrase that I repeat daily as my mantra and intention I say the words, “I am patient, I am persistent, but above all I am kind.” Another Bible verse comes to mind.

As a bit of a disclaimer for those who may think I quote the Bible too much, I would like to say that though I do not think the Bible is without error or the only Holy word of God any more than any other writing that I do think there is a lot of good stuff in the Bible. Sadly there is mixed in some pretty bad stuff too, like justifying slavery and the mistreatment of people holding different views, orientations, and beliefs. The Bible can picture God as intolerant and downright mean.

I believe that God, The Universe, is my loving and infinite source, and that God is patience personified, persistent, but most of all kind, for God is Love.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White