“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 2:14)

    Charlie Lewis moved to Michigan after losing the 1993 mayoral election by just one vote in Hickory, Mississippi. He decided to enjoy the quiet life of a retiree, believing the election challenge he had requested from the courts was unlikely to succeed. And then came an unexpected phone call to return to Mississippi. The state’s Supreme Court had thrown out three absentee ballots cast for Wayne Griffith, the residing mayor, wiping out his one-vote victory and making Lewis the winner by a two-vote margin — 115 to 113.

“I waited for awhile, but the law takes a lot of time.”

    “It’s been more than two years,” the 72-year-old Lewis said in response to the news. “I guess I had forgotten about it... I think that when you get to be 72 years old you learn how to digest things.” Still, he was excited about the court’s decision and the opportunities that awaited him. Lewis became the first black mayor of the tiny town of 500 nestled in the red clay hills of Mississippi. “I waited for awhile, but the law takes a lot of time,” Lewis was quoted as saying.

    A great thinker once said, “I would rather fail in the cause that someday will triumph than triumph in a cause that someday will fail.” Patience may leech some of the enthusiasm out of a victory, but if the cause is a good one, waiting never destroys the joy of an eventual triumph. According to God’s Word, patience is golden. The prophet Isaiah illustrated this truth when he wrote: ”But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall rise up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31 KJV)

    Today, strive to live a patient life. Good things come to those who wait.

 

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© 2002, Jamie Shell. Used by permission.

Title: "Patient Surprise"
Author: Jamie Shell
Publication Date: June 29, 2002