Productive Patience

I’ve heard it said that time is our most precious commodity.  If that’s true, then patience must be one of our most important assets. Unfortunately, I am not doing well in the patience department.

For some reason, I always feel like I need to be doing something productive. Maybe its because I’m a type A person, or maybe I’m just a little ADD, but one thing’s for sure, I have a really hard time doing nothing. In fact, nothing gets me more frustrated than waiting. Here’s an example.

On Wednesday of last week, the day before Thanksgiving, I needed to stop at Costco to pick up a prescription. Of course, when I pulled into the parking lot it was extremely crowded, so it took me a few minutes to find a parking spot. But I got lucky and found one very close to the building. Or at least I thought I was lucky until I reached the entrance. Much to my surprise, as I walked up they were closing the large roll down door at the entrance and tons of people were streaming out the exit. I stood there for a moment trying to figure out what was going on and then noticed that the only lights on in the building, were the emergency lights. The power must have gone out, so everybody was bailing.

I was a little irritated that the place was closed but shook it off and headed for my truck. But I was too late! Hundreds of people were already in their cars, fighting to get out of the parking lot. Since I parked close, I was the lucky guy who was now last in line in a large gridlock of cars all trying to exit at the same time. I knew I was stuck and there was nothing I could do about it. As I sat there, inching along at less than one mile per hour, I got more and more frustrated. But then I decided to do something productive, I decided to offer up a prayer. No, I wasn’t praying to be delivered from the parking lot (although I did think about it). I was just praying in a conversational way with God, just wanted to let Him know that I was thinking about Him. I don’t usually do that in my car, but hey, I had lots of time and nowhere to go.

After about 20 minutes, I found myself only 50 yards from the street, freedom was in sight! So I got another “productive” idea. I would try to warn people who were still streaming in from the street that Costco was closed. I rolled down my window and waved to get people’s attention, but only one lady paid attention to me. I explained the problem and told her she should turn around and she thanked me profusely. So hey, guess what, I found one more way to be productive during my predicament!

And that got me thinking… If you are like me and sometimes struggle with patience, there are always things you can do to be productive, like talking to someone. And remember, there is always at least One Person, you can talk to!  

Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson