patience – Michele Huey

Soldiers who stay behind to guard the camp get as much as those who go into battle. – 1 Samuel 30:24 (CEV)

Life can turn on a dime.

David, better than anyone, knew this.

In today’s reading, he and his men have returned from battle to discover Ziklag, where they’d settled with their families, burned to the ground, and everyone—women, children young, and old—taken captive, including David’s family. David’s men blamed him for their loss.

“But David found strength in the LORD his God” (1 Samuel 30:6).

“Shall I chase after this band of raiders?” he prayed.

“Yes,” God told him. “You will surely recover everything that was taken from you.”

Somehow David convinced his men, who were talking of stoning him, to join him in his pursuit. However, 200 of the 600 men who set out stayed behind, too exhausted to go on. David and his warriors surprised the enemy, recovered everything that had been taken, and came home with a sizable plunder purse.

Which they didn’t want to share with the 200 who hadn’t gone along.

“No, my brothers,” David said. “Don’t be selfish with what the LORD has given. He has kept us safe and helped us defeat the band of raiders that attacked us. Who will listen when you talk like this? We will share and share alike—those who go into battle and those who guard the equipment.”

I like the way the King James Version phrases that last statement: “so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff.”

Have you ever had to “tarry by the stuff” because you were too exhausted to go on, or because someone had to take care of things back home?

One evening nine years ago during baseball practice, my 14-year-old grandson Brent suffered a compound fracture of the bone in his upper left arm in a violent collision with another player in center field. An ambulance transported him to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he underwent surgery the next morning. His parents spent the next three days with him in Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Grandpa and I “tarried with the stuff” – two grandchildren, ages 6 and 10; Zoey, their 4-month-old Dogo Argentino; a couple dozen chickens, a goat, and a horse. We weren’t able to physically be with our loved ones during this crisis. But someone had to maintain the home front and what better someone than we who lived next door?

As I pondered my role during my quiet time that week, 1 Samuel 30:24 came to mind. Both those who go forth to deal with the emergency and those who stay behind to guard the stuff have vital jobs in the battle of life. I not only got to spend precious time with my grandchildren and my “grand-dog,” bonding more with them, but also I was able to have Brent’s favorite meal waiting for them when they got home.

Crises hit all of us. Sometimes it’s your job to go forth and fight. But if your role is to “stay with the stuff,” remember it’s just as important to guard the home front – with love, action, and prayer.

Thank you, Lord, that we can find strength in You and turn to You for wisdom during crisis times, whether we go forth or stay with the stuff. Amen.

Read and reflect on 1 Samuel 30.

Your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him. — Matthew 6:8 NIV

My husband came home one Friday evening with a disgusted look on his face.

“My truck is not to be moved,” he announced.

I looked out the door and noted the hood of his green pickup ajar. I was almost afraid to ask why.

A section of the fuel line was leaking, and until he replaced it, the truck couldn’t be used. So he went to the auto parts store in town. Just as our luck would have it, the part had to be ordered from the manufacturer, and we’d have to contact a local dealer in another town forty-five minutes away to order it for us.

“The part will be in on Wednesday,” he announced Saturday morning after a couple of phone calls. “Can you pick it up for me?”

Wednesday I called to make sure the part was in. It wasn’t. Neither was it in on Thursday. Or Friday. Monday I called the dealer for the fourth time.

“We ordered it, Ma’am,” he said. “We just didn’t get it yet. We don’t know where it is. The manufacturer said they shipped it. I’m going to put in another order and have them ship it so I have it tomorrow.”

“Why don’t we just forget it?” I said when I called the next day and it still wasn’t in. “I could have been to Detroit and back and gotten it myself.”

“Would you wait one more day?” he asked. He sounded as frustrated as I felt. “I’m going to call the manufacturer and find out where it is.”

“Okay,” I agreed, but not without a sigh.

The next day, even though the part we needed was put on the delivery truck at four o’clock that morning, it still wasn’t in. So what do we do now? It had been ten days since we ordered the part, and it was lost somewhere between Detroit and western Pennsylvania. If we ordered it from another dealer, we’d probably have to wait another week before it came in there. And what if the part came in the first place the day after we ordered it from someone else?

Finally, on Thursday, seven days after it was to be in, the elusive order arrived. One look at my husband’s face when he saw it, though, and I knew: After all that, it was the wrong part.

I got to thinking, though: We’re such an “instant-minded” society. Aren’t we like that with God, too?

We put in our orders with our heavenly Father, thinking that prayer is like putting our money in a vending machine, pushing a button, and having our answer drop down out of heaven like a candy bar. But more often than not, we have to wait, and waiting is the hardest part. Sometimes we wait so long, we think God is ignoring us or punishing us.

But when the answer does come, it’s always exactly what we need and right on time. And what’s even better—He never sends the wrong part.

Father, I am so impatient. Help me to be persistent and patient in prayer. Amen.

Read and meditate on Matthew 7:7–11.

Michele Huey

Tag: patience

Staying with the Stuff

The Wrong Part

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