Patience and the Kettle
Thursday, June 25th, 2015 10:06pm

There are two things in this world of which I know almost everyone has, and that is a hatred of waiting, and a general lack of patience in most things.  I myself raise my hands in acknowledgement of those very traits in my own life.  However, as experience has taught me, God likes to, from time to time, intervene in our lives and teach us lessons, not only in patience, but also in why it's such a blessing and privaledge to wait on Him, even in the most seemingly mundane things.  Case in point.  About a month or more ago our aging tea kettle finally gave up the ghost and died.

As a result I set out to get us a new one.  Well, at least that was the idea.  Success was another story.  I began my search by going to the local Kmart in search of one, only to nearly suffer a heart attack at the prices!!  So I looked online, and came to the same socking conclusion that tea kettles were WAY over priced.  Even so I kept looking, but try as I might, I could not find a good quality kettle at a reasonable price.  Your two basic choices were either cheap in quality (but not in price as even they were expensive), or you got well made that was even more costly.

So, after much fruitless research I relegated myself to the realization that we'd probably not be able to get another one, because I sure wasn't going to spend those prices for a silly tea kettle!  To make matters worse, I could get a nice three quart sauce pan cheaper than a 3 quart kettle!  So I decided to forego getting the kettle and instead invest in a new sauce pot as our old one had died months earlier, but hadn't as yet been replaced.  Part of the reason why we haven't replaced that pan yet is I still have yet to find the pan I want.  So I'm presently zero for two at this point.

But that's not where this plucky little tale ends.  If it was, it'd make for quite a boring blog post.  But the story continues several weeks later (ie today) at a local auction that my dad and I were attending.  The first blessing of the day was that it was a small auction, and the second is that people were bidding cheap.  And I mean CHEAP!  IE, my kinda cheap. :)  In fact, they were so cheap I kinda felt bad for the poor auctioneer who was having a hard time getting ANY bids on anything.  Eventually though he works his way over to one of the tables nearby on which sits a nearly brand new tea kettle, and a really nice, fancy tea kettle.  It was a bit rich for my tastes, but hey, a kettle is a kettle.

Anyhow, the auctioneer eventually comes down to the portion of the table where I'm standing, and in typical fashion I go into my "auctioning mode" (think poker face on steroids) as I get ready to bid on the kettle.  The auctioneer begins by doing choice on the table (ie, one person wins the bid and gets choice of anything on the table rather than bidding on a specific thing) and the first round goes high.  So I back off and let the table run a few passes until they're down to the point where I'm the only active bidder.  Now note, up to this point nobody has touched the kettle, praise the Lord, so I'm still working the table hoping to get my shot at it.

Finally it gets to a point where nobody's bidding, so I dive in at $2 and win the bid.  The only thing I grab off the table is the kettle.  And with that simple move, I have my kettle, some one month later than planned.  Even so, I have the one thing I wanted and couldn't get before, and I'm absolutely thrilled.  Now this is where the topic of patience comes in.  Now let's summarize what has happened.  It began with my tea kettle dying.  For a few days to a week I tried getting a good one at a decent price, but was repeated and unceremoniously denied.  Eventually I give up.

So then we fast forward to today, and what shows up?  A really nice kettle at a fantastic price, and my need is answered in a wonderful, incredible, and actually fun way by God.  So the lesson of Patience and the Kettle is this.  God knows our needs.  In fact He knows them WAY better than we do.  He knows what they are, when they are, and why they are.  He also knows what things in our lives aren't true needs, but are only wants.  He also knows when, where, and how something that we need can and will be fulfilled.  But the key to that is this, which is two fold, is this:

Patience and Trust.

That's two of the biggest things we patently lack, and in spades at that.  I mean, look at how easily I gave up, or how little I considered including God in the fulfilling of this need.  Or what about all the fruitless effort I went to in seeking out a kettle without lifting up even a single prayer to God for His help in fulfilling this need.  I just went about life without asking God for any help or intervention on my behalf, either before, or even after my efforts failed and I gave up.  Yet, as you can see today, God didn't give up.  Yes, it took Him a month to get a kettle for me, and He was even nice enough to let me enjoy the thrill of the chase in acquiring it, yet I was so impatient when I first began seeking my replacement that I was almost willing to pay a fist full of cash to get a kettle that He eventually delivered to me for a mere $2.

So in my impatience and eventual quitting, I showed an incredible lack of faith in God by not trusting Him to provide me with a new kettle.  If I'd trusted Him for its provision from the start, I wouldn't have given up so quickly.  So in the process of all these events, God has taught me two lessons.  One, always be patient in everything, and two, always trust Him to provide even the most basic, benign, simple things in life that we need.  It's important that we understand these simple fact because, if we can't trust Him in the little things, how can we trust Him for the bigger things?  So in the end, the lesson to be learned from all of this is to trust God in all things, even the littlest of things, and to always be patient in waiting for the answer.  That is the lesson of Patience and the Kettle.