PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

April 2, 2025

BE PATIENT OR BE A PATIENT

Storage Wars premiered on the A & E Network in 2010.  Based on a five-minute inspection the contents of abandoned storage lockers in Southern California are auctioned off to the highest bidder.  The goal is to make a profit on the contents of each unit.  If a bidder is really lucky, one can get a huge return on one’s investment.

The show presently features six buyers: Dave Hester (“The Mogul”), Darrel Sheets (“The Gambler”) who appears with his son Brandon, Jerrod Schulz and his wife Brandi Passante (“The Young Guns”) and Barry Weiss (“The Collector”).  Don Dotson and his wife Laura are the auctioneers.

In one of two special episodes that were filmed in Las Vegas, Nevada, Darrell Sheets was the winning bidder on a locker that contained a large assortment of jewelry.  Wanting to get it appraised Darrell takes it to a local Los Vegas jeweler.  As he begins to anxiously unpack his treasure, the jeweler tells him, “Be patient or be a patient.”

In many episodes of Storage Wars Barry Weiss would have done well to take the advice of the jeweler.  Barry tends to bid impulsively and very often pays far too much for not very good lockers.  By far he is more often in the red with his bids than any of the other buyers.

On the other hand Dave Hester tends to bide his time, knowing when to enter the bidding and just when to make his next bid.  Dave is also disciplined not to bid when a profit is not to be made.  Usually his patience is rewarded by doubling or tripling of his money.

In Galatians Paul lists patience as one of the fruits of the spirit along with love, joy, peace, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  For the apostle patience is a virtue which one should find exhibited by the Christian community.  Patience is very often listed as one of the seven Christian virtues.

As a Christian virtue, patience is associated with peace and mercy.  Patience leads to resolving conflicts and injustice peacefully, as opposed to resorting to violence.  The virtue leads to creating a sense of peaceful stability and community rather than suffering, hostility, and antagonism.  Patience involves accepting the grace to forgive, to show mercy to sinners.

The opposite of being patient is being impatient.  This leads to suffering, hostility, and antagonism which can result in bodily harm.  All three of these can land one in the emergency room of a hospital to be treated for a serious injury.  Impatience can also lead to anxiety and worry.  Both of these can have a direct effect upon one’s bodily chemistry which can result in all sorts of serious ailments.  In one episode of Storage Wars Barry Weiss’s impatience leads him to banging his head against the wall of a storage unit.  Not good.

“Be patient or be a patient” is a clever play on words that holds much truth.  Most of us would agree that patience is an attribute that we would like to have, but not right now.  It is a virtue that serves a person well and is worth the effort to cultivate over a long period of time.

(This article was originally published April 1, 2012.  Comments may be sent to davidh15503@embarqmail.com.)