Day 151 "Patience: The Gateway Towards Discovery and Understanding"

I came across this story on the internet.

A New York City taxi driver arrives at the final stop for his shift. He honked. After waiting a few minutes, he honked again. Because it was his last stop, he considered pulling away. Instead, he put the car in park and walked up to the door. He knocked. He heard an elderly voice, “Just a minute.” He then heard the shuffling of bags moving across the floor. Then the door opened. It was a small woman in her 90’s with a soft smile wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it. As she answered, the taxi driver caught a glimpse inside the house. It looked as if no one had lived there for years. All the furniture was covered in sheets, no clocks on the wall, and no knickknacks on the counters.

“Could you carry my bag?“ the lady asked.

The cab driver walked her slowly down the steps of the front porch to the cab.

Once in the cab, the lady handed the driver an address and asked, “Could you drive through downtown?”

“It’s not the shortest way,” The driver answered.

“I’m in no hurry. I don’t mind,” she said. “I’m on my way to hospice…”

The driver and passenger shared a quick glimpse in the rear view mirror, enough for her to see his concern and continue:

“I don’t have any family left. The doctor says I don’t have very long.”

The driver quietly reached over and shut off the meter then asked, “What route would you like me to take?”

For the next two hours, they drove through the city. She showed the driver where she once worked, the neighborhood where she and her husband first lived, a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom when she was a girl. There were a few parts of town she asked the driver to slow down and she would sit, staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

After a couple hours, she suddenly said, “I’m tired. Let’s go now.”

They drove in silence to the address she had given him. When they arrived, two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as they pulled up. They must have been expecting her.

The driver opened the trunk to take out the suitcase. As he shut the trunk, she was already in a wheelchair.

“How much do I owe you?” She asked, reaching into her purse.

“Nothing,” said the driver.

“You have to make a living,” she answered.

“There are other passengers,” he responded.

Almost without thinking, the driver bent and gave the lady a hug. She held on tightly.

“You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,” she said. “Thank you.”

The driver gave a final squeeze of the lady’s hand and the two turned to go their separate ways. As he got in the car and glanced over to her, the door was shut.

He didn’t pick up any more passengers That night. In fact, he could hardly speak.

What if that woman had gotten an angry or impatient driver? What if she got someone who refused to get out and go to her door? Refused to take the time driving around the city?

The taxi driver couldn’t shake the feeling that this single moment may be one of the most important moments of his life.

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We definitely live in a fast pace society. We want things, and we want them immediately. We are quick to judge others by how others look, the color of their skin, whether or not they conform to our ideals or beliefs, whether they measure up to our expectations or status level. We miss so many things hurrying along in our fast paced lives.

But have you ever seen a photograph taken with the shutter speed at a high speed opening rate? It is amazing the details that can be seen, the clarity of those details as if the sliver of time was frozen allowing you to see everything that needed to be seen in that moment.

The quickest moment we actually live, in which we have time to think, see, respond can be measured as short as a second for the average person. Anything shorter than that is but a blink of an eye and not worth trying to manage. But as we seek to live fully in each moment, may we grow accustomed to stringing out those moments together with patience and look closer at the things going on around us. May we seek out outstanding and try to understand what lies at the heart of people's actions. Patience is a virtue of love. It places the one's focus the other person. Whereas, impatience, that growing emotion of intolerance towards another person places self at the center of one's desires.

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

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." Ephesians 4:2

The discovery of understanding, why people do what they do, opens the door to the opportunities for bridging our differences. Love fortifies and focuses our attention away from ourselves and unto others. When doing so, our personal barriers and prejudices can be lowered, our defenses and resistance reduced, enabling us to see things that otherwise may have blindly passed us by. When we are open to listening and understanding, the world can take on a whole new aura of possibilities enabling us to bridge our differences and find common ground. In Christ, we are all spiritual equal. What a great starting place to begin.

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"My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to

listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry," James 1:19

The goal for Christian should be to understand God's love for us and then to open up our lives, like conduits, and allow God's love to reach out to others through us. It may take patience on our part, but God is certainly up to the task.

In his love, see you tomorrow.

"Carpe Momentum in Love" (Seize the moment in love)