It’s 6:23 in the evening. The clock tells me it’s late to be writing. Yet my commitment to the keyboard still stands.
The thoughts and feelings continue to swirl, and focusing becomes a challenge. For as hope remains my focus, the struggle brings tears. Tears that speak volumes with past hurts and indiscretions, tears that feel helpless against today’s imperfection, and mostly tears that drown out hope for tomorrow’s goodness.
My optimism is buried. My hopeful words nonexistent. What holds me captive is a comfortable hopelessness, a place I have become accustomed to from past hurt.
Shockingly in opposition to my purpose, I share what I most want to escape.
Yet, I still believe “in a future and a hope”. Where I fail is being patient in tribulation.
Patience…the opposite of instant gratification. In this world of instantaneous responses, patience has become a forgotten virtue.
Our expectations become skewed the more quickly we see results. And the expectation of instant results skews our sense of accomplishment.
What we so often forget is the age-old wisdom in a quote like, “good things come to those who wait.” Is that even ever said anymore in this world of instantaneousness? Where is the lesson in the struggle?
Technology would have us believe that every incredible view is just a high-speed gondola ride to the top of the mountain or a virtual reality representation of a highly-coveted exotic location. When in reality the most magnificent experiences are often revealed to the few who are willing to risk a great struggle and strengthen their resolve to persevere.
Hope doesn’t always present itself as an instant rope of salvation when we find ourselves in a hole. Rather it may teach us that learning to thrive within our circumstances while believing that our saving grace will eventually arrive brings us what we most need to learn, patience.
And so what I’ve learned today is we cannot escape the trials we face instantly, but we can learn to persevere with hope in the midst of it.
-Erika K Rothwell
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