Waiting

Patience is not the strongest virtue most of us have.  As business owners, we seek more control over our schedule and life.  We are willing to make great sacrifices of time and risk all our money on a vision.  This makes us a unique minority.  Some are jealous of us.  Politicians crave larger and larger shares of our wallet.

Regulators would like to regulate most of us out of business. Yet, we sacrifice and push ourselves often to exhaustion and beyond.  Normally our biggest challenge is utilizing our time for the greatest pay off.

However, the world does not conform to our wishes.  I am sitting in my doctor’s office awaiting some time with him.  He does not even control his source of revenue anymore.  The government and health insurance companies decide what his or her time may be worth.  The best they can do is try to be more efficient and see more patients.

Whenever I feel bad about my business life I think, at least for now, the government does not control my top line income.  I do not live in Venezuela, North Korea or Soviet controlled Russia, Cuba, or China.

Finding a few minutes to be thankful always helps me get back in balance.  Do you ever allow yourself time to celebrate your blessings?  It helps me appreciate those moments of waiting.

We help feed the homeless in “Church in the Park.”  Once, my wife began with a short message from Psalm 23.  She shared how David, the author, was working as a shepherd.  Later, he would become King of Israel.  His challenge in waiting was that Saul did not want to turn the power over to him.  Maybe in waiting, he was inspired to leave us so many honest reflections in the Psalms.

I always think, walking to my nice car after feeding the homeless, “but for the grace of God, I could be one of those folks walking down the street full of food and the Word.”  Being less than 18 inches from these folks, while serving them hot food, their “thank you” is among the most genuine I have ever experienced.

Sometimes waiting is not so bad.