Wednesday, June 10, 2015

TUNNEL

One of the things I'm learning while on Sabbatical - I hate to say it because it's an admission of a fairly serious character flaw - is patience.

It's never been a strong suit of mine.  My wife knows it.  My kids know it.  My team knows it.  Probably half of my church knows it.

I've always thought patience was highly overrated.  I know, Job and all, but it seems to me the real reason people have patience is because there are too many witnesses standing around.

When my Sabbatical began three weeks ago now, I thought:  'Patience is the last thing I'll have to worry about.  I have ten weeks.  That's all the time in the world.  What will I have to be impatient about?'

It's amazing how God uses circumstances to work on you, even when you don't think you need it.

One evening in Bologna, Italy, I opened my Mac and it started making the most ungodly sound -- scratching, whirring, whizzing -- it sounded like it was about to take off.  It was making such a racket Joelene recorded it on my iPhone.

We decided it was something that couldn't wait.  It had to be looked at now.  Right now.  We figured Italy had an Apple store.  It isn't Cambodia after all (no offense to Cambodia).  Sure enough there was one right in Bologna Old Town (every Italian city has an old town -- it's Italy).

So we navigated our car through the super narrow, cobble-stoned streets of Old Town Bologna (more patience required) and finally found Apple.  We got to the Genius Bar and discovered they could help us ---- in three hours.

Seriously?  I don't have the patience for that.

So we put our heads together -- Joelene and me -- and decided we would head on to our next destination which was Florence and look for the Apple store there -- because after all, Florence isn't Camb ... I already said that.

On the way down the Italian AutoStrada, going around 80mph, the traffic started to slow.  I hate slowing traffic.  It's so un-American.  Must be some minor construction or something.  Then it began to creep.  If there's anything I hate more than slowing traffic, it's creeping traffic.  Finally we found ourselves at a dead stop on the toll road.  In fact, we were stopped inside a tunnel, with miles of traffic lined up behind us.

Patience.

We didn't know what had happened but we sat in that tunnel along with other travellers - with my sick Mac wheezing in the back seat - for an hour and a half.  I ended up turning my engine off like everybody else and just sitting there in the black of the tunnel.  Joelene and I had stopped at a grocery store on our way out of Bologna (Joelene never passes up a grocery store when we're in other countries - it's just a thing - but I'm glad she didn't) -- we had a long picnic right there in the car, waiting for traffic to start up again.

Patience?  Oh yeah.  Definitely needed.

Once we got going again we discovered a semi had overturned all its contents about a mile ahead of us.  Only a mile.  So close to not needing any patience whatsoever.  My luck.

But we were back on the hunt for Apple.  The day was already half over.  Fortunately our GPS took us right to it in Florence.  Apple was located where it should be located -- in a swanky, modern mall far from anything Old Town, just outside Florence.  We waited in a line to talk to the guy who made the appointments and when it was our turn, we discovered we could get an appointment -- in three hours. We explained that we were helpless Americans lost in a foreign country and really needed help soon. Fortunately, our Apple rep was sympathetic to our cause.  He said we could definitely see a Genius -- in three hours.

Patience.

So we loitered around the swanky mall for that whole time (yes, I bought something) and when it was at last our turn we passionately explained our Mac predicament - how sick it sounded.  We even played the recording Joelene had captured on my iPhone.  It was now 7 p.m. and the Genius told us it could definitely be fixed -- tomorrow.  We'd needed to leave it and come back -- tomorrow.

Tomorrow was not in the patience plan.  Our lodging was an hour from the swanky mall and it wasn't something I wanted to do but I did need my Mac back with a non-wheezing attitude.

My patience was being tested big time today.

Just before we turned to leave, he stopped me.

'You know what?  Maybe I can rush it thru tonight.'
'Really?  You can do that?  We are helpless Americans lost in a foreign country, you know.'
'Yes, I think I can manage it tonight after all.  It will take another hour.'

Grateful, we said that would be wonderful.  What's another hour after you've spent an entire day of Sabbatical in a dark tunnel with your Mac rasping in the back seat?  None of this was in the plan.  But when the hour was up and the Mac was fixed, it felt good.  And I had learned a lesson on the importance of patience.

The good character of patience isn't formed in a week or a month (especially in my case).  It is created little by little, day by long day.

And be blessed.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hahaha...nice for ne to see a non-churchy message. I am right there with you.