Tribulation produces patience

By The NewsDay | Nov. 21, 2015 | 3 Min read

EXPERIENCE, skill and expertise are virtues that are threatened with extinction in our society. While I was dealing with feedback from last week’s installment, what was topical was that perseverance is fast exiting our lives. We jump off the production line early and enter the market half done. The quality of our products and services has to be perfected.

I will address the issue here with extracts from topics already covered in this column since its inception. I will try to answer pertinent questions that always arise, but I will avoid repetition and rhetoric. The truth of life is that experience is necessary. You cannot create it, but simply undergo it. That process and experience will guarantee the quality of your life. Learn to bear the pressure and stand the heat.

We all have different callings, purposes and assignments demanding different timeframes to develop. The training varies from one person to another and from one field to another. There are fast and slow learners. Some take longer to grasp and end up retaking certain tests and courses. Wise slow learners increase their time of personal private revision and study. There’re many underlying factors for duration and format of the training. One factor that’s generally true, although debatable is that the greater the assignment the greater the training. Training as a medical doctor takes longer than training as a plumber.

legit-patience

Observing the goings on in the world, one would notice that people are so much in a hurry to acquire or achieve something. It seems the world is in a hurry and everyone is in urgent mode. I agree that we have no time to waste on earth because compared to eternity we have to accomplish our dreams within time. However, we have to be sober and allow due process to take place in order to get the desired result. In quality control the understanding is that as long as the process is perfect the product is guaranteed. Let us not leave a trail of destruction on the way, but rather follow proper procedures.

The phenomenon is so worrying. People now seem to set their eyes on a desired result and switch off the mind and do whatever comes up to fulfil their dreams. No one seems interested in values, principles, morality and humanhood. It appears like a circus. The have are busy trying to increase the gap while the have nots want to catch up. Our young people no longer want to wait for sex after marriage. It seems the brand of people that knew that wages and salaries were a result of work have left the scene. I don’t know if technological advancement, especially genetic modification has put the human mind on a fast forward mode.

The idea of catching up has destroyed the social fabric. Almost everyone feels they have been delayed somewhere and want to make up for the lost time. Some Christians have been caught in the fray, ignoring prayer and fasting. In some instances the concept of overtaker’s anointing has been misunderstood. Stealing has been defined as opportunity while snatching someone’s husband or wife misconstrued to read restoration. It is so disturbing when people get breakthroughs through evil means and come to our churches and testify that God is good and faithful and attribute Satan’s doing to God’s doing. Hear me well, God is not looking for marks and approval to increase His rating. He remains God forever and has all the glory, the splendour and majesty.

From a Christian viewpoint, I am always challenged when I reap from the sacrifice of the martyrs and great women and men before us. The revival that we enjoy now are the results of prayers of intercessors of yesteryear. Do we have people that are prepared to spend days and nights in the prayer mountains interceding for the good of humanity in the years to come? Do we still have people like Anna who prayed and fasted for the coming of the Messiah? Luke 2:37 says of her, “And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.” Bear the pressure and stand the heat for a quality product. You’re going somewhere.