Patient Well-Doing

I came across a phrase that I love today in our reading (www.lifejournal.cc) :  Romans 2:6-7-He will render to each one according to his works: ⁷to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.  He is talking about the judgment of God and how God does not miss anything.  The evil of the wicked will be exposed, but the good that is done will also be.  Now always keep it all in perspective:  Christians get fired up about how many jewels are in their crowns in glory.  Well, however many you have, you will lay the crown and all the jewels at Jesus feet.   Remember what Paul said yesterday:  the people that he impacted were his crown.  Heaven is not really about who has the biggest abode or the nicest jewels.  Heaven is about Jesus.  We get carried away with some of the descriptions because we are so earthly minded we are no heavenly good.  I have read the book and I know: the joy of heaven is Jesus!  He should be our joy here too.  The more we enjoy Him here, the more we will enjoy Him there.  And really that is the point about the crowns.  You get the most out of heaven by getting the most our of walking with the Lord on the earth. 
This passage, however, speaks of his rewarding those who are patient in their well-doing.  I love this passage because it is a challenge to me.  I am not the most patient person.  I have two speeds: I go pretty good or I don't. When I am going pretty good, I  like them to jump on with me and let's go.   When I am not (in the stillness of this hour and in the last moments at night before nodding off), I like the surrounding to slow down, if at all possible.  The greatest injustice that I do to my family is my lack of patience.  Everyday I lay it at His Feet and some days I succeed.  But today He tells me that He rewards those who are patient in well doing when they do it for His Glory, His Honor, and with eternity in mind.  When you think about what really lasts...what really is immortal....what really is eternal...it will put our schedules in proper perspective, won't it?  My greatest reward comes when I in my patience do well for the Lord by serving others.  And what is that reward?  Our passage says 'eternal life.'  Is that just living forever?  By no means.  I like the way Jesus defines it in the 2nd half of John 10:10- But I have come that you might have life and life more abundantly....or life to the full...or compete, whole living.    That is what we get when we serve others in a ministry of the Lord and with eternity in mind.  Let's love a sometimes hateful, often bothered, and mostly misguided world today...patiently.