Ever notice how sometimes you’ll think of someone or something and it comes into your life? Three times in the last month I’ve thought of someone and they’ve appeared in my life one way or another. Or sometimes we think of a spiritual fruit or it’s part of a teaching, and there occurs a chance to practice it? Well, that just happened, too. I find interesting and amazing things happen when I’m tuned in spiritually. But when travels and other pressures grow intense and I don’t take time to pause, then I miss opportunities.
We just had teaching on patience–one of the spiritual fruits (that is, ways of living with God)–that Paul details in Galatians. If you are tuned to your spiritual life, you’ll recognize opportunities for patience. Such as cutting a little short the amount of time you allow to drive to the airport, clear security and be in time for your flight. This is a routine part of most weeks for me. Sunday, I allowed enough time but no “what if..” time. And sure enough, for the second straight week there was a traffic jam on I-75 heading to Dayton. It’s a rural area. There shouldn’t be that much traffic at noon on Sunday.
Oh, then I realized–it’s time to cultivate that spiritual fruit I was just learning about intellectually. Now it’s time to make it part of my personality. There’s no sense in getting anxious, complaining, trying to drive aggressively. You just “chill” as they say. What happens, happens. So you just remain calm, listen to some music, and make it when you make it. If you’re late, you just rearrange flights. But I made it, and slept comfortably in Phoenix Sunday night.
And patience is actually tied into focus and distraction. I could have been distracted by all manner of “what if” thoughts–and actually those thoughts did start. Then I returned to focus, remembered the teaching on patience and calmly made my flight.
Tags: lifestyle, Spirituality
Faith Venture 
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