The patience of Job in an age of Alexa

Feeling a little blue this holiday season? Depending on what kind of year you’ve had, 2019 may or may not have arrived fast enough. So maybe you didn’t accomplish all that you intended to this past year. Quite possibly, you may have even lost some ground rather than achieved all your goals. Perhaps, in this new year, we could all benefit by being a bit more patient.

The frustrations associated with short-term setbacks and waiting for future rewards are nothing new. In fact, the Bible offers many important lessons on keeping your eye on the long term rather than tapping out when the going gets tough. Some of the most powerful biblical stories of the Old Testament involve figures who overcame some sort of adversity, extolling the virtue of patience in the process.

For example, Jacob was tested when he was tricked by Laban into marrying his first daughter, Leah, rather than Rachel, his other daughter, whom he had been promised. What if Jacob simply “swiped right” to quickly identify other marriage prospects rather than do 14 years of labor while he waited to be with his beloved Rachel? There would be no Joseph.

And then there’s Job, the poster child for Murphy’s Law. How would today’s social media have influenced Job’s ability to cope with his seemingly endless misfortunes? Maybe cyberbullies would have piled on and pushed him over the edge. Thankfully, Job persevered through the darkness and ultimately lived a long and prosperous life.

The common denominator for both Jacob and Job was their ability to endure hardship while in pursuit of a greater goal.

Though modern technological advances have improved many aspects of daily living, the most significant achievements in our lives still require patience rather than quick fixes. Can we live in this modern age and still bear the burdens of living with short-term challenges to acquire long-term gains?

We expect same-day delivery service, speed-date through mobile apps and receive news through tweets. Complex problems and mundane questions can be solved instantly on the internet or by simply asking “Alexa.” We expect immediate success in business and overreact when the stock market doesn’t go straight up.

It should be no surprise that in our instant-gratification society we see an alarming increase in stressrelated disorders beginning with schoolchildren who are struggling with obesity, depression, anxiety and other serious challenges.

Will our younger generation be able to handle the years of patience it takes to truly build a successful career or business? Will its members have the discipline to limit their spending today in order to save for a comfortable retirement? Real achievements require many years of hard work and, for most, financial security is attained only through a lifetime of systematic savings and living within one’s means.

So, what can you do to become a more patient person? We can begin by observing a day of rest each week. We don’t need to be religious to see the benefit in disconnecting from technology and reconnecting with ourselves and our loved ones. We can tune out the noise and slow everything down. We can also remember the power of meditation and other forms of mental and physical exercises to help us better manage our personal reactions to the fast-paced world around us. And finally, we can boost our patience by breaking our long-term plans into shorter-term, reasonably achievable milestones.

As Houstonians, we will need more patience to cope with all the road construction and flood-control work going on across our city. But we’ll eventually enjoy the improvements all that work brings. As the Astros organization has showed us: Patience can eventually pay off if there is a good, long-term plan in place. Let us all pledge to make 2019 a year we learn to slow down and weather the challenges of the short term for the sake of the long term.