patience is a virtue

there's this nature photographer. i think his name is david blevins. i tried to post one of his pics but it didn't work. he takes the most amazing pictures. he'll go to a location and wait, sometimes for hours or even days, until the lighting and everything is just right. to look at his photographs, you'd think they'd been photoshop'd or something. but they're not. he's just willing to wait.
it makes me wonder if i'd see more beautiful and miraculous things in my own life if i was willing to wait just a little longer. impatience is a killer, really. killer of relationships, ministries, churches, marriages.
i remember, when i was in amsterdam, taking a tour of "oude kerk" which literally means "old church". it's the oldest church in amsterdam. it's been abandonded for years. and it's right on the edge of the red light district. the building was magnificant! it can't be adequately described. when i walked in, it literally took my breath away. i think i even got teary eyed. people look like nothing in this mammoth structure. someone, at some point in time, believed so strongly in God's presence and ability to affect the people of amsterdam that they build this grande place in honor of Him and His presence. and yet.. at some point, they also gave up. decided God wasn't there, or couldn't work or wasn't working in people's lives.
what if they would have hung on? what if the next great awakening was right around the corner? how different would amsterdam be now? what if the next great communicator/evangelist/discipler was prepared to walk in the door, but found the door bolted shut?
and what about my own life? what about this writing thing? what if i quit? what if the next great job is right around the corner? what if that person i've been trying so long to reach is closer than i think? what if patience teaches grace, humility, love? what if i could learn to humbly, genuinely love others, even the one who are nothing like me, if i was patient enough to stick around and learn to see what God sees?
what if the summit is closer than it looks?
and what about your life? what if you quit? what if that person who drives you crazy is the one who could speak into your life like no one you've ever known? what if the job you can't stand leads you to someone who's desperate to know about Christ? what if the mundane is meant to teach you that being is more important than doing? what if the next great thing is right around the corner, but you stop in the intersection?

what then?