patience--a dying virtue thanks to the internet

I was (and am) confused and sad.  My son is upset because of something that happened in a mentoring relationship--something that might be partly his fault but not fully--and I have promised not to interfere. Not to go into details, he forgot about an appointment and his mentor cut off the relationship.  I'm not sure why this happened, but I've promised not to interfere, and that's so hard.

Today I had a 4th day meeting, and I came to the coffee shop early, then waited 20 minutes after the meeting was to start, then left.  I left a voice mail with one of the people I was supposed to meet with, and so far it hasn't been returned.  So basically, the same thing happened to me that happened to my son's mentor.  I wouldn't dream of canceling my relationship with my group.  I had an appointment last week and couldn't make it (I did let them know at the meeting), and so I assume that they simply forgot to let me know.  They have been meeting for a long time, and I just recently joined them; it's not a big deal.  I was able to play around with my new Kindle, so that was actually a good thing.

Why is it that we as a nation are so impatient?  When I was a girl, we knew how to wait.  We had to, after all.  If we wanted to make a call, we had to wait until we were home and could use the phone.  If we wanted to mail our friends a letter, we had to wait till the mail was received, the response written, the new letter sent, and the carrier dropped the return mail to the house.  If we wanted to reheat a meal, we actually had to reheat it and wait.  All this has changed, and we have changed with it.  We now can make a call whenever we want, and so we get impatient if we are driving and the law forbids us to use the phone.  We leave voice mail and get testy if that call isn't answered within the hour.  We email our friends or im them on Facebook and consider them angry at us or no longer a friend if the email or IM isn't answered immediately.  We can nuke a meal on the microwave in 2 minutes, more or less.  So why wouldn't we be impatient?

But some things can't be rushed.  Some things have to be thought through and deliberated.  For example, everyone gets their feelings hurt from time to time, and it's very healing to write a letter and blow off steam.  But the easy availability of email and IM takes away the ability to write the letter, look it over the next hour or day, and then think better of it because we've cooled down.  I wonder how many friendships have been damaged or broken beyond repair because of an outburst that was sent without the appropriate "cool down" time?

The saying goes that all things come to him who waits.  That might be true, but less and less of us are waiting to find out.  If it doesn't come immediately, we give up and go to something else.  And that something can even be something as fast as waiting for an app or a movie to download.

God, in this ever-more-rapidly-moving world that we live in, patience is harder and harder to come by.  I pray for those people who have been wounded by others who haven't taken the time to slow down and think.  I pray that hearts that have been broken can be mended.  And I pray for my brothers and sisters to learn to be patient and wait on you.