Longsuffering

For the past few weeks, I’ve been beset with an off-again, on-again medical problem and I don’t mind telling you that it gets very frustrating at times.  But, having a lot of time of just sitting and suffering gives one time to just think and, as most of you know by now, “thinking” leads me to an editorial.  Such is the case today as I’ll share some of my thoughts with you.

I know that all of us get frustrated at times, don’t we?  And those “times” seem to be when something isn’t going right for us.  When our plans aren’t working out the way we hoped that they would.  Well, do you ever wonder if God gets frustrated too?

Of course we can’t ascribe God’s thoughts to the way man thinks because His are not comparable with man’s.  (IE: Isa. 55:8-9)   But, sometimes we can’t help but considering whether He experiences emotions like we do.  Ok, I am going somewhere with this and here’s where I’m taking you.

If you read my preamble verse you might have gotten a clue to the gist of our lesson today and that is: just how patient and “longsuffering” do you think God is?  Especially when dealing with man, His prime creation?  Let me tell you a little story I once read, written by a man whose name I do not know.  But his story fits very well with our thoughts today.

He said that he heard his cat meowing at the door so he went over to let it in.  He went to the door, opened it and held it open for the cat to come inside.  Well, the cat, being a cat, just stood there as if deciding to come in or stay out.  Almost as if trying to decide if the man was a friend or an enemy.  He kept starting and stopping and sort of sniffing inside the door.

The man was getting pretty exasperated and frustrated by the cat’s behavior and he kept calling to it, “come on in.”  Then he tried telling it to “get into this house.”  The cat still couldn’t seem to make up its mind.  In his frustration, the man said, “I give you food.  I supply all your needs.  If you do anything in return, I don’t know what it is.  Now I’m personally inviting you into my house.  So, come on in.”

The cat just stands there and looks in and then back over his shoulder into the yard behind him and doesn’t make a move.  Finally, the man says, “I’m not going to stand here forever.  If you don’t come in, I’m going to close this door.  This is your last chance.”

Did the cat come in?  No, he just sat there outside the door, “exercising his free will,” the man said.  “He’ll come in when it suits him and not before.  He figures I’ll be patient.  So far, he’s right.”

Well, let’s apply some thoughts to that little story.  First off, how many of us ourselves, or people we know, relate to the “cat” in the story?   The thing that I’m afraid of is that too many of us do.  We want in but, we keep looking back into the “yard” (IE: world) and just can’t seem to turn loose of it and enter.  Perhaps we think that the “house” has always been there, therefore always will be and the master will always answer the “door” when we call.

I’m reminded of a parable told by Jesus in the 9th chapter of Luke.  Perhaps you remember it being about the “Lord” inviting people to follow him with some saying that they would except “first” they had to do other things.  There were worldly things they wanted to do first.  Look at what He said to them in verse 62:  “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

No, the idea that man too often has is that the “house” will always be available and the master will always answer the door.  That brethren is a false premise.  Yesterday is gone and so are the opportunities of “coming in.”  We may not have a tomorrow so that leaves only today to make up our mind.  As to this thought, consider what the writer of Hebrews says: “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”  (Heb. 4:7)

The passage that I opened today’s editorial with (2Pet. 3:9) tells us that yes, God is “longsuffering,” is patient with man because He wants everyone to be saved.  But, like the “cat,” man has “free-will” and it’s up to him whether he comes in or not.  But, just so that we don’t get a false security that the “house” will always be available to us, let me point out the very next verse (10).

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

Let me close with this final thought application to the story.  At the time the “longsuffering” (patience) of the Master runs out, the “door” of the house is closed and the “yard” will be gone also.

Respectfully submitted,

Ron Covey