(adapted from a personal journal entry 4 years ago)
I often refer to myself as impatient. What I fail to account for, however, is the paradoxical way in which mission also teaches patience alongside my antsiness. You see, when you're an American working your way across the world's largest cities, you won't get far without patience. I will wait for the metro, wait for meetings to assemble, wait for meals, wait for understanding of what's going on. I will (eventually) patiently accept that God is in control and that I am a small part of God's gradual work in others' lives. In mission, we are also humbled by God's patience with us: we see glimpses of God's love and hope for us, and yet how painstakingly slow is our response!
So yes, being a missionary is about my inability to sit still and my impatience to go to the margins and encounter Jesus among the 'least of these.' But being a missionary, if pursued faithfully, is also about being still, sitting at the feet of my Savior. It's about expecting and waiting and walking more slowly than I might choose.
In the end, I suppose we seek to follow Jesus with a selective sense of patience. As with the prophets of old, there is no tolerance for evil, injustice, and oppression. But in the grace of a wholly good God, we find (and emulate) infinite patience with the human spirit. A patience that engenders true simplicity and understanding, peace-making and trust.