I am still learning how to be a patient person. It doesn't come naturally to me. Not until I began my post graduate work at the University of Alberta did I finally realize the benefits, and necessity, of patience.
The goal of an MA is the production of a thesis, an academic paper usually between 80-120 pages. The first year, a student spends the year taking courses and going to lectures, writing smaller papers, and doing research. The second year, a student begins to write his or her thesis. I didn't want to wait until the second year. I was impatient to get started on the thesis in year one. I knew what I wanted to write about, and I felt like the first year was sort of a waste of time.
What I learned in that first year was that I needed to focus on each class, on each assignment, because every final paper for each class, if I did them well and planned them out well, could become the basis for a chapter in my thesis. This meant that I had to choose each class carefully and think strategically about each assignment. The more classes I took the more I began to realize that there was no way I could write a fully coherent thesis without the knowledge I gained in each class. Over that first year, I began to see the value in patience; the value gained by not always rushing to achieve the overall goal without acknowledging and using the value of the small steps that actually led to the achievement of that goal.
In my second year, when I actually began to write my thesis, I found that I had laid a solid groundwork that allowed me to write a thesis that was almost 200 pages long and easily defended, with no significant revisions from my defense committee.
Recently I read a book by Robert Sharma called "Secret Letters from the Monk who Sold His Ferrari." In it Sharma writes
"The wise realize that small daily improvements (small tasks well executed) lead to exceptional results over time."
This reminds me of a parable Jesus told in Matthew 25. A landowner gives 3 of his servants an amount of money to look after while he is away. When he returns, two of the servants have invested wisely and made a profit. The master says to them "well done. You have been faithful in small things so now I will put you in charge of larger things." Being faithful in small things (small tasks well executed) lead to extraordinary results.
This makes me think about how I live my life.
Am I faithful in small things? Do I execute small tasks well in order to achieve extraordinary results?
If I want the world to be a more loving, kinder, and more forgiving place, am I willing to be more loving, more kind, and more forgiving to the person sitting next to me on the bus or in line ahead of me at the checkout? Do I only imagine a day when people treat each other with kindness, or am I kinder to the cashier at the store who has had a bad day? Do I imagine a world where people are more loving, or am I actively being more loving to my kids, my parents, my spouse, the person who cuts my hair? Do I only dream of a world where people are more forgiving, or am I forgiving the person standing right in front of me who actually needs my forgiveness today?
If I can start with little things, only then will I see the world I imagine become a reality.
So often we INTEND to be more loving or forgiving or kind, but we fail to take the first small step of actually DOING it.
Today, take those first small steps into a larger world....into God's world.
