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…Patience…
By Child of New Light | May 19, 2008
it is to his glory to overlook an offense
Over the last few days the Lord has been working patience into me. I seem to have set myself up for a crash course when I respeced my Paladin in World of Warcraft to "Holy" (I went from a damage dealer to a healer). The first thing I did was jump into a group for a dungeon and since then I've spent most of the last few days healing various pick up groups through various pseudo end-game dungeons in World of Warcraft.
As anyone who has played an online RPG knows healing a pickup group can be insane. People do crazy and sometimes, admittedly, stupid things that result in everyone dying; repeatedly. Being the healer it is my duty to make sure other's mistakes don't mess us all over.
At first this was frustrating. Very frustrating. To a degree it still is. But as I continued through I realized that if I'm going to devote this character to picking up after people I'm going to have to get another attitude to enjoy it. Save for a few rare exceptions I take groups where the people are insane as a challenge. Am I good enough to keep them alive even if they do something ridiculously stupid?
At first I complained a lot. I'm a complainer as you know. Being able to hide behind a screen and knowing most of them will never see me again left me to make some pretty sharp (at least for me) comments. But the Spirit convicted me. "How are you coming across?" "Are you bringing Glory to my name?" "Are you representing the Apostles Creed which you have adopted as your guild's name?"
I found that cutting back on the complaining and taking a more positive attitude not only made me feel better about obviously stupid mistakes of others but it also presented me in a better light. Placing me in a better position to get to know people and share to them something about the God I serve.
By being patient and healing us through. Sometimes pulling off near in-game miracles and when I obviously messed up myself yet kept a positive attitude. I found people thanking me and complimenting me.
The New Living Translation words it like this…
they earn respect by overlooking wrongs.
The vast majority of people will respect you for your self control and patience. To those who don't, you have a God who will reward you.
Taking this experience from game I've begun to apply it to my dealings with others in the clan. Sometimes someone asks a question that I feel should be obvious. After a certain number of times I begin to get annoyed. Or maybe someone says something to me that seemed rude or maybe even borderline mean. Applying this idea of patience involves treating others as Christ did.
The next time the spirit of impatience creeps in ask yourself this… with every stupid mistake you've made in your life… How patient has God been with you? Don't others deserve the same patience?
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Topics: Personal / Life, Spiritual |
