Really consider waiting and praying...there is always a purpose for that. There is always a bigger picture. We are kind of like birds in a cage that we cannot see what is outside. There may be a cat outside, waiting to chew us up, but God as the Owner would not let us out, just because He knows and we don’t.
- Johnny Au, in reference to post-grad future
Patience. I have often heard the following quote: Patience is a virtue. Yet, I never hear the same status applied to any of the other virtues. Is it any more important than kindness? Or humility? Or diligence? No. All virtue are important. Yet... Attitude colours any situation. It is amazing what a little bit of patience can achieve. It can prevent devastating anger from smashing. Stop unintended words from cutting. I will even go as far as setting patience = perseverance, and think of the rewards of training (for hockey, lets say), or studying (marks is always a good motivator), or a long and difficult project (dreading upper-year lab reports...) Yes, a little patience can go a long way.
PDEng 15 Module 2 (yes, I know, but isn’t being open-minded patience based as well? Well...I can say that now that I’m actually done this week’s PDEng...anyways...) refers to a “24 hour rule”...if you’re angry at someone, wait a day before giving this person a piece of your mind. Chances are, you’re not mad anymore. In our emotion driven selves, we often act with not enough thought...or without enough of the larger picture. We run ahead of ourselves, believing that we know what we want, and begin to pray and ask for things. When we don’t get it, we simply pray harder. Till one day the event has past and gone. In hindsight we might realize that it probably was a good thing that certain things didn’t happen, even if we wished with all our might that it did at that time.
Often what we want to have, isn’t what we need to have.
- Samuel Chen
God is the Dude that’s holding the box with the picture to the puzzle. We hold one piece. How much does one piece tell us in a 11 thousand piece puzzle? Or 3 million? Or 12 million? Or 32 million? We see a little bit of the picture and we ask for things (and how often do we really know what we're asking for?), but He see the whole thing, and knows the better course of action. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve made mistakes , but He sees them all. If that’s not patience, I don’t know what is.
Indeed, we often don’t know what’s out there. We don’t realize the bigger picture, being stuck in the here and the now. Right now, I think we can split situations where we want something (that will turn out unlike what we expected at the end) into two types. Either we don’t get what we want, and thus shielded from the consequences, or we venture out of our cages, and scramble for the safety of the cage when the cat comes down on us. Which one would you prefer? Neither of them are any cool...hmm... So what can we do? I’ve come to realize, the more of these I write, the more often I get a same answer... pray. Pray. And pray.
Reference: Johnny Au (CCF), Samuel Chen (mCCF), both Graduates of 2006
Seven virtues of Prudentius (also found in Dante’s The Divine Comedy): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_virtues
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