November 4, 2013
I have a new computer. In fact, it’s the year in which our Cathedral offices are all getting new computers of one type or another. (Sometimes a person gets an upgrade of a machine that is not brand new, but new to them). I’m amazed by the size of the new Windows 8 tablet/laptop that I now use as my ‘complete’ computer. It’s small enough to tout with me when I’m traveling, to use as a tablet for reading books from Kindle, and yet carry all the programs that I have on a much larger computer with ease. Smart machine!
What’s amazing to me, though, is that even with my limited knowledge of computers, I can get very impatient when the machine doesn’t work as I figured it might. When I make what I feel is a perfectly good command and it says no, I’m incredulous. How could the computer not do what I ask it to? Well, maybe, just maybe its operator error.
It seems to me that life is a little bit like that, too. We ask someone to do something for us and their answer is no. Not directly, perhaps, but no nonetheless. And do we get impatient, even incredulous? Of course we do or at least, of course, we can. What it proves to us is that our humanness often gets in the way of our concern for others. Being impatient with a computer is one thing. Being impatient with a friend or a spouse or a child is another thing altogether.
Do I have a magic answer about how to handle impatience? Not a magic answer for sure. But I often notice that when I get impatient I also need to ask is it the person with whom I’m working or is it me that causes the impatient remark or gesture. Too often we get upset because people are not paying enough attention to what we want. So, we’re not as much impatient with them as we are impatient with ourselves. It’s a case of expectations. If we’re impatient with a child because she is making a scene on the living room floor and the parents happen to be there, we are more than likely concerned with the child, but we’re also a little unhinged because we wonder why they haven’t disciplined the child earlier so that the ‘little tantrum’ doesn’t happen.
All of us get impatient. But in those tough moments of frustration it might be helpful to pray to the Lord asking for patience and a clearer path to understanding.