Love and Patience

Sometimes passages of books that I am reading leap off the page and cry out for attention. This was the case several days ago as I was reading N. T. Wright's new book, Simply Christian. The sentence that jumped out at me was this: "As Christians we should expect to have demands made on our charity and patience." The part of the sentence I found particulary noteworthy was the "we should expect" part. It ought to be obvious to me, but my typical response is to feel "put off" or "out of sorts" when demands are made on my charity and patience. The point is, I don't expect it, and I should. How differently I might behave or respond to others who try my love and patience if I had the attitude that this was the rule and not the exception, that every day I arose with the thought that I can expect to have demands made on my charity and patience. I suspect that if I did so, then when they came I might be more amenable to being in the moment and welcoming them as "spiritual fitness training" from God. How about you? Do you begin each day ready to welcome the demands that will be made on your love and patience?