Despite going to bed later than normal, I awoke at the same time. And there on the floor was the turtle. (Now the last time I saw a turtle was at my daughter’s wedding in St. Lucia last year. A large sea turtle had crawled up to the base of the stairs and deposited her eggs.) So “seeing” a turtle in my room was a surprise. But there it was. Slowly moving across the floor. And then it turned as if to say “follow me”. Follow you? Where? Why?

I lay there and thought, “a turtle?” I am not a turtle fan. Never liked the Ninja one’s, probably like Touché Turtle.

So many people seem to want to get “some place”. Marriage, a house, ministry or some such thing. They miss out on the value of the season they are in. And As many of us have talked about for years, there is a process! No one likes to discuss it it seems, except those who have been in it!!!! But it is there. I always wanted to get some place. To be someone, to have someone. All that did for me was cause me to continue on in immature thought process.

Lately I have watched a lot of people get bored or angry with their lives and do stupid and foolish things. Thinking a new person or the lack of a person, or geographical changes or a new car or house is going to change the inherent problem of their insecurity. Last night my friend Randall Worley said, “when you feel insecure about something, it is perhaps the very thing the Lord wants to reveal to you about your thinking. He wants you to be secure in Him.” Wow! What a good word. Caused me to think.

Back to the turtle. When I saw the one in St. Lucia, it was bringing new life. I felt the turtle this morning was bringing new life. Not just to me, but to others. That not only did the turtle represent a lifestyle of patience, but a lifestyle of reproduction, of life.

You will have the choice for patience…or impatience. For process to produce better…or bitter.

The Gallo Brothers said they “will release no wine before its time”. I think God is a lot like that. Sure we can make every effort to circumvent His goodness, His plan, but it always seems to produce a mess. (I know there are exceptions. Like picking the winner in a race.)Patience is a product of the Holy Spirit. No patience tells you who is NOT helping your life along.

I am sure the Lord will bring more into focus on the turtle. It reminded me of being a child, fishing on a lake. My father decided to stand on the rock in the water to allow for better casting. The rock began to move…

We are in amazing times. These times call for patience to provide comfort in our times of challenge and testing. Romans 5:4 And patience produces character, and character produces hope. 5 And this hope will never disappoint us, because God has poured out his love to fill our hearts. He gave us his love through the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to us.

Without patience character and hope will not develop. Excellence will not come forth. And patience allows for new life to be established.

William Barclay says, “Hupomone is one of the noblest of NT words. Normally it is translated ‘patience’ or ‘endurance,’ but, as we shall see, there is no single English word which transmits all the fullness of its meaning. . . . It has one very interesting use – it is used of the ability of a plant to live under hard and unfavorable circumstances. . . . It is not the patience which can sit down and bow its head and let things descend upon it and passively endure until the storm is past. . . . It is the spirit which can bear things, not simply with resignation, but with blazing hope; it is . . . the spirit which bears things because it knows that these things are leading to a goal of glory; it is not the patience which grimly waits for the end, but the patience which radiantly hopes for the dawn” (William Barclay, New Testament Words, pp. 143-144).

James said, “knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience (endurance)”?

We are in the middle of something we may not even see the “end” of. But we are there. Our faith is rising. For those who have been patient, for those who have endured, there is a new day. One of victory and celebration.

Like the turtle, patience is going somewhere, getting somewhere. And when it is there, it will be a new season of life.