siDEVO: Green Bananas

James 5:7-8—“Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.”

Ever had one of those nights where there is nothing in the house to eat? You look through your kitchen only to find sour grapes, freezer burned chicken nuggets and empty boxes with cereal dust at the bottom. So you hit the store and stock up on everything that you lag. Once you get home and everything is unpacked, you hear your stomach growl and you know it’s about time to kill a bag of chips. Since I’m trying to rock healthy food instead, I grabbed a banana….

As I started to unpeel the banana, I noticed how green it was. In fact, it was even difficult to unpeel, almost as if it wasn’t ready to be eaten. Bound and determined to eat something, I finally got it out of its peal and began to eat it. Bad choice. That banana about made me toss it back up. It was just plain nasty. This morning, I went back into the kitchen to grab some breakfast. Looking over at the bananas, they were no longer the green color they were last night, but rather an almost yellow color. Wondering how they tasted, I grabbed one and ate it. The banana was, no doubt, better than the one last night. If I was a little bit more patient, I could have skipped out on that nasty green banana.

Being a Christian is a lot like having a green banana. We jump into the things of God expecting to change the entire world in one weekend. When we eat of that green banana rather than waiting on God, we get a bad taste in our mouth and we don’t want to go back for seconds. Patience is a necessity in Christianity and also a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). It allows to fool to find folly and the patient to find peace. James uses the analogy of a farmer in the selected scripture. If the farmer screamed at God for not allowing his crops to grow in the middle of the winter, he finds himself feeling hurt by God. God, knowing what is best, does things according to His own time. He doesn’t do it to upset the farmer, but because He sees the bigger picture and knows that there is a better time to grow crops. We so often become impatient in trying to serve God or get the things we believe we need. We simply need to trust in God by being patient and standing firm.

Take your green bananas and wait on God.

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