Rule Number Six is be patient.
Now, I said the last one was my most fun because I love to learn and study and prepare for things like debates and discussions and evangelization. But I don’t like waiting. Patience is not my strength, my wife will tell you that. So, rule number six is the tough one for me, is having patience
2 Peter 3:15 reminds us “Regard the patience of the Lord to be your salvation.” In other words, if God dealt with us swiftly and quickly, I’d be in big trouble. I am very glad that He has patience with me. Consider myself back in my Protestant dayswhen I was very anti-Catholic. If God had tried to force at that point, or you had tried to come and force me at that time to become Catholic, it would have had disastrous results. But, the patience of the Lord was my salvation. He knew the right time and over a period of years, 18 to be exact, that we became finally Catholic, but it was done through the patience of the Lord. It couldn’t have been rushed. I have to learn, and this rule really applies to me, I have to learn to sit back, and be patient and relax and remember a couple verses from the Psalms 37:7, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.”
Being still is not one of my strengths. I’m a doer. I said in the beginning I’m a Type-A personality, I want to get something done and I want to get it done now. But God is not in as big a hurry as we are. God is outside of time and He sees the big picture, and we, unfortunately (or fortunately, whichever way you want to look at it), can also look at the big picture and understand God’s the one who’s at work. It’s not all up to us. It’s not up to me to get you saved and then to Church and baptized tomorrow. This is God’s timing. My job is to be faithful, to plant the seeds, to wait.
Actually, this sixth rule of patience is where all the other rules fit in because while I’m being patient, I can be loving, I can be praying, I can be doing my homework, I can do all of the things that we need to do while God is working in their life. So, patience is really a crucial rule in relating to other people. The farmer plants the seed but he can’t rush the crop. His job is to plant the seed and let God bring the sun and God bring the rain and the miracle of growth with that seed. The farmer has to sit back and be patient and wait, sometimes all summer, until the fall when the crop is ready. We, as evangelists and people of God, who want to bring people to Christ and the Church should be like the farmer: plant the seed, do everything we can to make sure there’s light and that there’s rain, and that that seed is ready.Be back loving, praying, doing all of the things that we need to do. And then wait, and be patient, and be still and know that God is God and He is always working in that person’s life. Waiting and being patient and it’s worth it in the long run.