Sunday, June 6, 2021

TCATS #386 - To the Depths of Patience


A
s much of the United States, and more particularly Utah, gets back to living life that almost reflects pre-pandemic times, the members of the Tabernacle Choir are finding out just how much patience they're made of! Friday's newsletter, yet again, contained no information on when we'll be back singing again. And people are going CRAZY. Several choir members took to Facebook to vent just a little steam.  And I've been getting texts from others who are also trying really hard to be patient but are finding it terribly difficult. It's one thing to be patient when you have an explanation. It's entirely another thing when there seemingly isn't any. 

Some quotes from our FB group and from texts:

"Major disappointment"
"Not this week, dang it!"
"It's like Groundhog Day, again and again and again..."
"I'm hanging on with faith and courage"
"I think it will be July or August"
"August/September"
" I just want information! It doesn’t even have to be crazy soon just at least a date or a plan or something!"
"Maybe they originally thought we'd still have restrictions in place this summer so they didn't plan for us coming back so soon"
"I've been so disappointed they haven't been more transparent with 'the plan'"
"What, exactly, are we waiting for?"


The Church has adopted this very calculated, careful, and cautious approach to everything-pandemic.
And apparently they are determined to keep that approach.

Anyway, I think it only fitting at this point to end this week's blog post with three of my favorite quotes on the subject of PATIENCE. These come from the master of words, insight, and meaning... None other than Neal A. Maxwell:

1) “Patience is a willingness, in a sense, to watch the unfolding purposes of God with a sense of wonder and awe, rather than pacing up and down within the cell of our circumstance.”

2) "When we are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we know what is best—better than does God. Or, at least, we are asserting that our timetable is better than His. We can grow in faith only if we are willing to wait patiently for God's purposes and patterns to unfold in our lives, on His timetable.”

3) "Patience helps us to use, rather than protest, these seeming flat periods of life, becoming filled with quiet wonder over the past and with anticipation for that which may lie ahead, instead of demeaning the particular flatness through which we may be passing at the time.  We should savor even the seemingly ordinary times...".

 

(Read his talk on the subject, here)

Until next time, God be with you,

 

 

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