INTRODUCTION: On December 27, 2009 a woman ordered a hamburger at McDonalds. After eating the hamburger she complained to the employees behind the counter that she had not liked it and wanted a refund. Bear in mind that she has EATEN the entire hamburger. The employee wouldn’t refund the money but offered another hamburger. The customer then went into a rage that was captured on videotape in which she threw a water-dispenser over the counter, followed by a “wet-floor” sign, and pushed three cash registers off the counter smashing the touch-screens. She fled cursing from the store. One reader commented: “McDonalds, if the food doesn’t kill you, one of the customers might!”
In July 2007 the California Department of Transportation temporarily shut down Highway 138 because drivers were getting so annoyed with construction along that route. The forty-four-million-dollar road-widening project was meant to alleviate accidents on the well-traveled thoroughfare, but apparently the inconvenience to drives was too much. Frustrated with slow-moving traffic, drivers abused construction workers with death threats, BB guns, and even, in one instance, a flying burrito (does McDonalds sell burritos?). The results of the road rage only heightened drivers’ impatience; all drivers had to take a half hour detour until the construction was completed.
From “Mcrage” to “road-rage” it seems we’re seeing and hearing about more impatience and less civility in our world today. We’re impatient. When we walk to our cars in a parking lot we get impatient with drivers barreling through the lanes around us. Then as soon as we get in our cars, we become impatient with the pedestrians walking so slowly in front of us. If we get impatient with technology, cars and possessions, is it a surprise that we get impatient with people? Yet patience is one of the seven traits of a loving person. Paul writes in I Corinthians 13:4 “Love is patient.” Only an intentional choice to love will allow us to develop patience in today’s world. Today as we continue our series on love I want to talk about four characteristics of loving patience.
