The ultimate testing of your patience

So, here I am, sitting at my desk making a few program updates and working on my website.  I’ve been going at it for a few hours and was just about finished with creating the last web page and all of a sudden, I see the rainbow spiral on my screen start to circle.  Then, the screen turns a few shades lighter, aka “Not Responding!”  I kept trying to refresh the screen but it almost felt like the spiral went even slooooower!

What are my options? Wait for it to come back (okay, I already dedicated 15 minutes hoping it would refresh)…or, close out the link and start all over.  Yes, I had saved my changes periodically BUT by this point, it was very late so did I really feel like going through it again!  The kicker….now my whole site was down!  It went from “Not Responding” to “Page NOT Found!”….

Then I remembered this had happened before which resulted in the host of my website undergoing some updates.  No big deal….it’ll be back up soon.

Nada.

So, I call them.  “Hold please!” Elevator music.  Now it’s midnight.

Finally, my turn and the gentleman says exactly what I had initially thought it was…..only this time, it was “Unscheduled maintenance” and he said my site should be back up in an hour.  By this point, I decide to close up shop and try again tomorrow.

Tomorrow came and my website still wasn’t up!  What!  Oh no!  This is not good!

What thoughts go through my head? “Is everything lost?” “What to do”  …..

I ended up calling them again, only this time “They are experiencing a high-call volume”….  literally, 1 hour on hold.

Finally, my turn.  He walks me through a few things and then says, “Okay, I figured out what’s going on but this is one of the more complicated cases….”  Me: Oh, okay, well what’s going on?  He says somehow my IP address got blocked from their server which basically shut everything down.  So, he tells me that I need to now run an anti-malware scan to ensure everything is fine and also change my internet password….then call them back so they can fix it.  All I can think of at this point is OIY VEY & how long will I be on hold again!

Run the scan, all is fine.  Call them back.  Yes, another 30 minutes on hold.  Finally, my turn.  After another 45 minutes, WAHOOO!! It’s back!

Happy Happy Dance!

So why am I sharing this oh so exciting story with you today?  Well, it’s because my patience was surely tested!  Not only with TIME but ENERGY and I HAD TO remain calm and positive that the site would return to normal.

If I let the aggravation of the series of events get to me, I would have probably ruined my mood which would have spiraled into ruining the rest of my day because of how frustrating it was to go through! The old me would have done exactly what my emotions wanted and that would have been to let it get to me.

BUT, having FAITH and knowing God is in control of the WHY’S and the HOW’S and the IF’S, AND’S, & BUT’S……it was smooth sailing!

So, what does the ultimate testing of your patience look like?

Right now, it’s a very hectic and busy season leading up to Christmas next week.  So as above-mentioned, any time you start to feel frustrated, irritated, annoyed, etc…..get your faith in motion and RELAX about it.  The outcome is a whole lot sweeter and there’s joy to be found in the midst.

xoxo