A Broken Phone, A Need for Patience

There seems to be a theme occurring again and again in my life: patience. Patience with my roommates,  patience with my family, patience with my co-workers. In fact, as I write this, I have to be patient with myself because I scalded my hand at work and have quite the lobster claw that is quite sore. It's everywhere, and this week, I realized, I'm not a very patient person.

So, to backtrack a little. I was walking to work the other week and I dropped my phone on a concrete sidewalk. It didn't crack or anything, but the screen stopped functioning in the proper way. It is a touchscreen phone, so the screen is kinda everything. This made communication to ANYONE challenging to the nth degree. Not only could I not text, but I kept calling people that I didn't mean to (I think I called my friend's mom 3 times in a one hour period), it texted people absolutely nonsensical words and sentences (apparently my phone is a Jedi and Igaulan is a word), and I couldn't access any of my apps (sad, I know). This meant that anything that usually took 1 minute of my life now took minimum of 5. After throwing my phone on the carpet several times in frustration, I came to the sudden epiphany that I wasn't being patient with my phone.

My first thought was: my phone is an inanimate object, it didn't have feelings, so it didn't matter if I was patient with it or not. My phone was broken. I knew that, I just didn't seem to care about the problems of my phone. I just wanted it to work when I needed it to work. I then realized, if I wasn't being patient that was a direct result of my failure, then what would I be patient with? I am most certainly not the most patient roommate, or sister, or friend, or student, or daughter. 

What about this summer? I will be trying to share the love of Christ with people who live in a post-Modern culture. What good will I be if I am not being patient with them? How will I be an effective witness if I don't learn to be patient with myself and wait on the Lord and His timing? 1 Thessalonians 5: 14 says:

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

So that is that. I need to be more patient. I am called to be patient with the idle (oy vay), the fainthearted, and the week. I am supposed to encourage them, challenge them, admonish them, and help them. But most of all, I am to be patient with them all. It is definitely a journey (much like the rest of my life currently), but I am ready for it. I have been praying for God to work in my life before I even leave for Norway, and He has been faithful (as only He can be).