The World Makes an Impatient Monster Out of Me

A quote that describes me as a blogger and why I struggle to post more frequently:

"Epiphanies cannot be scheduled, but they can be invited."- Mary Pipher

I have many random thoughts while I'm driving and in recent weeks my random thoughts have been related to driving. The days that I'm more speed conscious (aka going the speed limit) I find that everyone else on the road has places to go and people to see so they speed past me or my favorite-- tailgate. On the days that the speed demon comes out I find that I am the only one that has a place to go and the car in front of me is going a snail's pace and the cars next to me are going the exact same speed as me which leaves me no room for escape.

The epiphany came when I was at a stop sign. There was a particularly nice, swift-looking car behind me for some time. With the dozen of stop signs leading to my route home, this vehicle was surely growing antsy with my 35 mph driving. The moment the road diverged into two lanes, Mr. Fancy car road-skid speedily past me leaving my little Honda coughing in its exhaust. In that moment I thought, "why are we so impatient?"

I blame the world for impatience. 100 years ago who would have thought about high speed internet or being able to call someone from a mobile phone? The concept of being able to FedEx something makes it easy for the procrastinator. You can email someone these days instead of having a letter sent by horse drawn carriage. You can tweet something and the world wide web will immediately know your thought.

I blame myself for letting the world lose its love. The place we live has gone from a culture of collectivism to individualism.

When I get cut off while driving I automatically shake my fist at the car as if its driver has wronged me. I can't remember the last time I gave that driver the benefit of the doubt. Maybe his mother is in the hospital. Perhaps she left the hair straightener on in her house. It's possible he got in a fight with his wife. What if she was late for her son's court trial?

A definition of love I heard in a recent sermon is, giving the benefit of the doubt. When you love someone, you want to give him or her the benefit of the doubt. But really, what an unnatural reaction that would be. In our impatience it is easy to blame, it is easy to think that we are justified. To that end are we just being selfish? How do we begin to think interpersonal rather than individualistic?

"Love is patient, love is kind." 1 Corinthians 13:4

Lets remember how to love again, be patient, and leave a little margin of time between places we need to get to so that we don't get caught in the web of impatience.