I heard the following piece of advice while watching one of my daughter's tennis lessons years ago. The coach told her that being patient on the court is not the same thing as being passive about her gameplay. In other words, trying to "kill" the ball when returning a hit so that you can grab a point as quickly as possible, isn't always the best strategy. There are other ways to go about winning the match. He recommended that she continue to employ patience, and wait for the right shot at the right time. This will win the day in the long run.
This isn't always the easy thing to do mind you. A player can feel any number of emotions once the match or tournament begins. In fact, this piece of advice works for just about any sport I can think of. In baseball for example, we wait for the perfect pitch to cross the plate in the strike zone. In football, the quarterback waits for an open receiver. You get the idea. We take a moment to focus our mind and body, wait for the right opportunity, and only then do we make a move.
Ecclesiastes 7:8-9 says, "The
end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than
pride. Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in
the lap of fools."
We see the opposite strategy
being employed all around us - there are many who end up in the lap of
fools. The squeaky wheel gets a cleaning, right? The idea here is
that you must speak up and complain in order to be heard. Talk loud, move
fast, and then get what you want. But what if we actually stepped back
long enough to apply some oil and fix the squeak itself?
I will never forget a
particular transition of power that took place years ago at one of my churches
in a different city. We had a brand new pastor, and the entire
congregation was excited. It isn't difficult to embrace something new and
interesting generally speaking, and the same thing happens in churches.
New management always carries with it the potential for hope.
As luck would have it though,
this particular person began making sweeping changes almost immediately.
He was trying to swing away with the proverbial tennis racket and kill the ball
the moment the match began. He advocated switching meeting venues,
cancelling certain ministries, and even changing the church name.
Decisive change isn't always a bad thing, but there was one particular ministry
he shut down that will always haunt me. It was a healing ministry
designed for women, and it had been running for almost ten years. In
addition, the person leading the ministry was just recently widowed. That
ministry had become a way for her to cling to something familiar in a time of
great struggle. It allowed her to connect with the familiar.
How different that would have
gone I think, had the new pastor stepped back a bit and surveyed the entire
playing field before making a move. How different things would have been
had he waited for the right time, and the right shot. Easy for me to
judge in hindsight I know – pastoral ministry is a hard job. But I will
forever hold this event as an example of zeal not according to wisdom. If
I remember correctly, the leader and everyone else in that group left the
church shortly thereafter.
I think that the lesson we
can take from Ecclesiastes 7 is that we can wait on God’s timing. Wait
for what He might be trying to tell or teach us, both through the Scriptures
and in the Spirit. It isn't passivity to step back a bit, and prayerfully
wait.
1 Chronicles 16:11 further
says, "Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always."
When we are looking for God's hand, it means we want something specifically
from Him. We are asking Him to do something for us. But when we
seek His face, it is a completely different experience. This means
we just want to be known by Him, and for Him to know us. To have a
connection such that we might understand what He wants from us. It is
this second meaning that applies here I think. 1 Chronicles 16 in this
regard, is talking about giving God an audience first - before we seek counsel
from other people. This isn't being passive either; it is simply being
wise.
I think that we can end up
with the following process: listen for God first, discern what He is telling
you by reading Scripture and seeking Godly counsel, then finally to obey His commands. Rushing in full of
pride or anger rarely succeeds in the long run. This behavior does make
an impact on those around you, but usually not a good one. Instead be
patient with God, and He will do the same with you. Prudence is not the same thing as
indecision.
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