Patience is more Than A Virtue!

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Galatians 6:9

We are going to spend the next few weeks talking about patience. Not because you need to hear it, but because I need to hear it. Lol.

Let’s take a closer look at Joseph and his patience. Joseph was to say the least slightly spoiled as a young child. His father, Jacob (Israel) was not afraid to let Joseph’s siblings know that he liked him better. He made an “ornate” robe for him to wear. Joseph’s brothers hated him for multiple reasons. One was that Joseph tattled on them (Genesis 37:2), coming in from the field he told his dad all things that they were doing wrong. You see Joseph didn’t make his life any easier with his siblings by his actions. Here’s the thing, God didn’t say “Joseph because you are spoiled and you like to tattle on your brothers I’m going to punish you.” Instead, he said Joseph I have a plan for you.

God blessed Joseph with some visions where his siblings and his parents bowed down to him. Even though Joseph was Jacob’s favorite, he rebuked him because of the visions. “Do you really think that your mother and I will actually bow down to you?” As Joseph, how would you answer that question? Personally, if that were to have happened to me I would have had second thoughts about if the visions came from God. You see God speaks to us all differently, that’s we are supposed to be learning from this. God came down with his angles and spoke to Abraham, he wrestled with Jacob, he shut the mouths of the lions for Daniel, and he gave Joseph the ability to see and intemperate visions. God speaks to us all in different ways.

I’ll bet you are thinking how is any of this dealing with patience, how is this going to help me be more patient. The next part of Joseph’s story is where Joseph learned patience. He was sent out to check on his brothers and when they saw him coming the seemed a plan to kill him. Luckily, one of his brothers persuaded them not kill him but tie him and throw him in a cistern. This might not seem like a real win but it was for him, because his intentions were to come back later and pull him out and get him back home safely. However, while he was away his other brothers sold him into slavery for about 20 shekels of silver. That’s about 8 ounces or 230 grams, in today’s currency that equals (12/15/2019 Silver price per ounce, $17.02) so the sold Joseph for $136.16! Holy cow, that’s even one trip to Walmart for most families!!

God was with Joseph and was teaching him patience. He took this spoiled kid that was always favored and turned him into a slave so he could learn a lot more than patience. God gave Joseph the strength to endure everything that happened to him. He shaped Joseph into the leader that he needed him to be so that later in his story he could save hundreds of thousands or even millions of people through 7 years of hardship. Josephs beginning is part of the story that we sometimes miss, but it is vital to think about because it lets us know that it’s ok if we don’t always have the patience we think we should have. It also lets us know that God is there for us through the hard times, he is using those times to shape us into the person we need to be.

Prayer

God we come to you today to thank you for everything that happened to us. We thank you for the hardships that you have helped us through. We thank you for the times where we weren’t sure that you were really there for us. The times that we were on top of the world and forgot that, you were the reason that we were there. We thank you for the patience that you have with us. We know that we can be hard headed, especially me just ask my wonderful wife. We thank for not giving up on us, even when we didn’t deserve to have you on our side. God we would ask that you would give is the faith of Abraham, Daniel, David, job, and john. We pray that you would help give us the courage to claim your name and shout it from the rooftops. We are grateful for the journey that you are sending us on, even when we don’t understand why things are happening give us the strength to know that you are helping to mold us into the person you need us to be. God lastly, we hope that you help us to know that everything happens in God’s time not our time. Help us know that your timing is perfect, it may not align with our schedules, but it is perfect. Thank you for the gift of your son, the gift of the holy spirit, the gift of being able to share your word and to help others remain strong in your faith.
Thank you

Amen

Prayer

Lord, today we come to you with HAPPY hearts.  We are so grateful that you give us the opportunity to change the lives of those around us.  We are grateful that you give us the wisdom to change our lives and the lives of those around us.  And you make it so simple. We can do it with a single smile. God today I would ask that you help us to smile more. The next time we see someone down, help us to smile for them. The next time we are down, help us to remember that you gave us the best gift ever. The ability to know you, your son, and the holy spirit. God, we are so grateful for everything you give us.

We ask all these things in your Precious Son's Name

Amen

A Little More

 The other day I got a call from one of our clients.

I love talking to our clients so I always smile when I answer the phone.

“Hey Dan, one of my drivers is pulled over and they are saying that our permit doesn’t cover what we weigh. Isn’t that why we hire your team to make sure that these things don’t happen!”

My smile immediately vanished.

I was shocked because my team is amazing. and it’s not like them to miss something like 20,000 lbs on a permit.

So, I asked him, “Who have you been working with, and who was the one who called our team to get the permit?” 

To get to the bottom of the problem I needed the details.

They gave me the details.

My next call was to my team. Then after I got the details I got them started on getting new permits to get the problem fixed. I’m a solutions guy, not an excuses guy.

But I NEED to know the real reason why it happened so that we can fix the issue.

My next call was to the driver so that I could see exactly what happened.

I knew he was going to be upset. He was pulled over and they were going to give him a HUGE ticket. I wouldn’t be happy either.

so……

I made sure not to smile when I made the call.  I had a serious look on my face. As we chatted I learned that he was the person who gave his weight to our team. I asked where he got the weights from and how in the world they were off by over 20K lbs!

That’s when he told me that he might have gotten the wrong scale ticket from the weigh station where he originally weighed.

Immediately my heart leapt with joy, this is NOT our fault!

Now to get the problem resolved and get this driver back on the road was my only goal.  I was not going to assign blame or make anyone feel bad. 

Hey, we all make mistakes. I do it multiple times every single day.

The owner of the company shot me a text. I'm getting permits from the big guys. They won’t make these mistakes that cost me time and $$$$$.

No problem.  Let me know if you need anything. We are here to help.

Well……..

After they called the “BIG Guys” they called me about 30 minutes later.

Hey, we can’t get an Idaho permit until Monday. It’s Friday night. And we need to drop this load off tomorrow afternoon.

I told him that I would NOT make any promises.

But my team went to work!

Guess what????

We got the permits that the “BIG Guys” couldn’t get.

My team had the Idaho permit in less than 20 minutes. For the right weight this time.

Here’s the point of all this.

When things don’t go right, smile. I have taught my whole team this.

That right there is how we got the permits. They smiled as they worked and it didn’t take any time at all.

Ok, there might be a little knowledge that went into this too. Lol

Next time you need anything DOT, don’t call the “Big Guys” , call the team who can get it done!

Dan Greer