“Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains.”

 How often are we willing to be patient and just be content to wait?  Not often, I know.  I had coffee last week with the CEO of a pharmaceutical company and he was sharing with me the business cycle of an industry where “hurry up and wait” is part of the business.  It was fascinating to hear him describe the process to get a drug or treatment to market. A drug-trial might well take a decade of research, development and testing only to find that some part of the trial doesn’t pass the F.D.A. or a problem arises.  Even when this is the accepted pattern  that everyone expects, it can still be frustrating.  Biotech and Pharma are not alone.  It can take any one of our products, services or offerings a long time to come to market.  The question we must ask ourselves, is how do we handle this time of waiting?  We can take the path of frustration, or we can, like the CEO I met, use that time to focus down even more on the next project or to hone the launch steps that are universal to any product to be taken to market. Waiting doesn’t have to be like the days when we watched fathers sit anxiously in maternity wards twiddling their thumbs and reaching heights of anxiety.  We can turn waiting time that is given to us by a boss, a customer, a regulator, a lender, an investor, or an employee into times of great productivity and anticipation. Is there something in your business today that needs to be waited on and you can flip the table to the positive?

James reminds us of the waiting we all must do until our Lord returns to get us.  There is no more positive and exciting waiting than for Him. Jesus uses the parable of the harvest many times in His teachings.  The harvest cannot be hurried and if it is, then the fruit or the vegetables come without taste or full growth.  Our lives are a time of waiting on the Kingdom of God and we must show the godly virtue of patience and understanding, always looking for the best and anticipating His return. Let’s wait together for His full glory to arrive, but in the meantime, let’s use every hour we have to increase and further those who will receive Him when he does return.

Reference:  James 5:7 (New International Version)