James 5: 7-10 (links validated 10/16/22)

In his book, Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West Stephen Ambrose writes about Lewis and Clark’s need for patience with the Native Americans they met during their travels. When the famous explorers entered Sioux Country near today’s Yankton, S.D, Lewis met with some of the Yanktons and invited them to a council. The Yanktons entered the council in “full regalia” and cooked “a fat dog” for their visitors. The white men, too, wore their dress uniforms and ran up the flag. Lewis gave his standard Indian Speech about the Indians’ new great white father in the East and about how if they only did what he said they would prosper through new trade options and in other ways. “When [Lewis] finished, the chiefs said they would respond in the morning — obviously they would need time to confer on this business of accepting a new father and becoming part of a new trade system. Lewis recognized that patience was not just a virtue in dealing with Indians, it was a necessity [italics mine].”

Healing often depends on the kind of patience James extols in today’s Lesson but doesn’t come naturally to any of us. I recently read about a woman whom doctors sent home to recover from hip surgery. The doctors told her to stay off her repaired hip and not to put too much weight on it. This woman, however, was an active and energetic person. People marveled at her positive attitude and determination not to let a broken hip slow her down. As some people predicted, however, she also rushed the process. She pushed herself too hard. So she ended up back in the hospital to have further surgery on her broken hip. People later recognized that they should have urged her to be patient rather than praising her for her determination. She had said, “I’m not going to let this broken hip get me down.” Did she impatiently mean, however, “I’m like God and know more than the doctor or anyone else how to heal myself”?

Early this year parts of California near Walker Canyon and Lake Elsinore experienced a “super bloom apocalypse,” where long dormant desert flowers in the hot dry desert exploded into bloom after rain and snow melt from the mountains watered the thirsty ground. The bloom was so vibrant and full this year that when satellites in space took pictures you could easily see the areas where the bloom was occurring. But the bloom doesn’t happen every year. The last time was in the spring of 2016 and depending on weather conditions it might not happened again for another 10 years. We have to be patient and notice the signs, when the weather and water conditions are just right, and then we see the miracle of the desert blooming...

("In recent years I have discovered the delight of cultivating the earth, coaxing beauty out of the wild overgrown corners of my yard...")