⁷ Be patient, therefore, brothers,^[a] until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. (James 5:7 ESV)

This passage came from another devotional I was reading this morning. It spoke of places in the world where a farmer has to wait for the early rains to make the ground soft enough to cultivate. Then he waits for the late rains for the crops to come to the peak of production before harvesting. This requires a lot of patience.

This may be an apt metaphor for our lives where some things come easy early on. But then we must have the patience to wait until later in life to cultivate the easier earlier aspects. In many ways I feel like my career and my faith life were both this way. Things came easy early on but it was not until much later that I was able to harvest the work I put in earlier.

In a world where everyone wants what they want right now, this will not be a popular idea. However, there is something truly valuable in the waiting. We both harvest maturity during this time as well as we cultivate a proper sense of expectation. These things can be invaluable to a good life and a strong faith.