Patience and Faith

It occurred to me today how much patience and faith are related.

I had an appointment with the British Consulate to get my visa today. I allowed an hour to travel the 17 miles from my office to the Consulate. I knew the 405 would be congested this morning, so I took surface streets. Lincoln Blvd was all torn up and down to two lanes, that weren't moving. So I cut over to Sepulveda and wound my way through the streets of west LA. I had to call my friend Patrick to help with directions and he helped a lot. But at 9:27 I was still a few miles away. I called my family and asked them to pray that I'd get there in time (even though I knew that it was physically impossible). I got to the Consulate at 9:40 for my 9:30 appointment. I was a little stressed, but since I knew they were praying for me, I just kept going. When I finally got through security and up to the 12th floor, the very nice security officer let me know they were running a little behind and not to worry. He told me where to sit, what forms to copy before I got to the window. There were about 15 people in the waiting area already, so I took a seat. After one more person, they called my name, I went right up, handed in my papers and everything went great. No problems. In fact, it went so smoothly and quickly, I forgot to ask about whether I could have my family come over for less than 6 months without a visa!

I had to return later this afternoon to pick up my passport with its new visa inside, and I asked the question then. Yes, if they are coming to "visit" for less than 6 months, they do not need a visa. That's a savings of $2100!

So here's where faith and patience fit in: I had to be patient with the traffic and not get flustered by my circumstances. I had to have faith that if God was to make this happen, it would happen in His time, not mine. And what good would it do to get things done outside of His timing? It would be like eating fruit from trees that we weren't invited to eat from.

Dave