Have you ever been in a situation that required an immense amount of patience? If you're still in active addiction, probably not. Addicts are not good at waiting. As I've written before, addiction is an exquisite form of selfishness. Selfish people aren't good at waiting for anything. I suspect addicts invented the microwave and the credit card. We don't want to wait to eat, to get paid, to be entertained to do anything!
In recovery there are ample opportunities to practice patience. Working the 12 steps is not a sprint but a marathon. There are some steps you'll sit with for a long time before you're ready to move on. And you are not in charge of the pace. That's a completely novel thought for an addict. The truth that we cannot accelerate our recovery by our own efforts. It will find it's own pace. And you won't like that. I know there are times when I don't.
Patience is a skill that comes in handy for much more than just recovery. If you take recovery seriously you will develop patience. Then you'll find all sorts of opportunities to exercise that patience. It might be waiting on God to lift a burden or working through a challenging situation that simply takes time. In addiction we avoid hard things through self-medication or quit when things get tough. In recovery we discover those are no longer options if we want to be healthy and sober. So, relax and be patient as God teaches you patience!
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