Being Unhurried and Patient

Well, for whatever reason in the last few days God has placed a number of things before me that I want to share with you so you may get overload this week. That which is below is from Mountain Wings and I could identify with the author's feelings and experience. May you be blessed as you read and reflect on it also.

On The Mountain

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My wife asked me to pick up a prescription at the store for her tonight. She has a cough and we are getting ready to go on a vacation for four days. I left work after seven and headed to the store.

It was crowded at the pharmacy counter. Both pharmacists looked harried and tired after a long day and each customer in the makeshift line didn't look any fresher. I stood there about five minutes in a line that really was no line at all.

My wife's prescription had been called in but most of the folk waiting in line had their prescriptions called in. There is nothing to try your patience like waiting in a seemingly slow moving line.

I started smiling.

Why? I can't exactly answer that. I just did.
I started thinking.

First of all, I wasn't sick. Not that I was gloating or being condescending, I just realized that every person getting medicine was more than likely sick with something. It was a blessing just to be well.

Secondly, I wasn't in a hurry. How many times do we hurry up and wait? We rush rush rush when we really don't need to. If a person in front of us takes more than three seconds to go when the light turns green, we get upset. We rush home to relax and have to spend an hour trying to unwind from the rushing that saved us two minutes.

Well, I just relaxed while standing in line.

So I smiled.

Third, I felt the mountaintop.

I realized all over again (each situation in life grants you the

opportunity) that the mountaintop is really not a physical place, it is a state of mind. When Martin Luther King Jr. said, "I've been to the mountaintop" he wasn't talking about an actual mountain. He was in the midst of struggle and rocks and hate mail and jail. He was talking about a state of mind.

He could stand on the mountain even in the midst of struggle.

He could stand on the mountain even with rocks thrown at him.

He could stand on the mountain with venomous calls and hate mail daily. He could even stand on the mountain - sitting in jail.

So I smiled.

My smile got so big and obvious that the lady behind the counter beckoned to me and said, "what's the name?" "Bronner" I replied.

She immediately went and got the prescription even though everyone else was there before me. She then brought the lady's prescription IN FRONT of me.

The lady in front of me turned to me and said, "being around you must have brought me favor." She recognized that she had been there for a long time before I got there and still had not been able to get her prescription and suddenly both of us had our prescriptions ahead of the crowd. I knew she had been there a long time because I had heard her mumbling angrily in line. She sensed something out of the ordinary had happened.

I tell you this to remind you that life will always present to you the opportunity for the mountain or the valley. Always understand that among animals and man far more live in the valley than on the mountain and you do have a choice, even if you feel you are sitting in jail.

And there really may be someone throwing rocks at you.

It wasn't so much that the pharmacist saw me smiling or recognized me. She saw me standing in a place where the crowd wasn't. She saw the mountain.

Even if they are throwing rocks, remember, The higher you are on the mountain The harder it is to get hit.

Now just close your eyes and feel the cool fresh wind of the mountain

And don't forget to smile.