Sunny, seventy degrees, no wind, and a green desert have been on order since we arrived in Arizona. I’ve gotten out into the rough a couple of times with my friend Sarah, clearing my mind on the trail. But many more days have been spent in the roping pen, putting things together one piece at a time.

Team roping is a culmination of doing many things correctly all at the same time. Reading through my performance journal, I can’t tell you how many different things have been going well one day and then don’t come together the next. I’ve been told it is a positive move, making different mistakes rather than the same ones. Still, it is challenging.

Last week, I wrote about a pure guts race, and mentally what this means. It’s not just about what winning on paper looks like. It is about winning the mind game and your own goals set for yourself. Per usual, this challenged me this week to stay above the noise and stay in the play.

Wednesday at practice, I was roping extremely well. Loops were sharp, handles were shaping up well, and Cash was scoring cattle really good. It came down to the last steer of the pen, and he was mine. I had been working on being patient with my handles, keeping my horse’s shoulders up and softening the corner. I kept telling myself, I am patient.

The cow left the chute in no hurry and I scored him out. We got into position and my patience melted into complacency as I took extra swings all the way to the right fence. I missed my steer with a low percentage shot because I waited. But I was being patient, right?

What a balance to be patiently confident. Confident in what you know you have to do, but also confident in when the opportunity presents itself, not to hesitate. I hesitated. I had lost my intensity. Patience must be met with intensity or it will become complacency.

Patience seems to be a simple word. It involves usually some sort of waiting, but also expectancy. Expecting that whatever you’re being patient for will come to pass. When it does, you must be in a place to receive it.

That steer taught me a really important lesson about being patient. It requires intensity and being deliberate. Patience in a team roping run looks a lot different than other requests in life you might be asking God for. Patience for a new job, a new house, marriage, kids, prosperity, healing…just to name a few.

The waiting part of patience should still have a level of intensity. Waiting can’t be sitting on the sidelines waiting on God. He needs our active hearts and fervency requesting, asking, knocking, and praying. I used to read the scripture ask, seek, and knock, like it was a one-time thing. Ok God, I asked. I knocked. Why isn’t the door opening?

The request is a process, both in our asking and on the journey to receiving. In this particular run, the journey was rather quick, but I let the opportunity to receive pass me by. It made me think, what else in my life have I been thinking I’m patient, but really, I’m being complacent?

In team roping, usually the first good shot you have is the best one to take. Rarely does it get better the longer you go down the arena. Sure, positioning, swing, delivery, and all those things must be right, too. But once the shot presents itself, take it. There’s no reason to put it off. In doing so, you risk the opportunity slipping away.

Sometimes when we have waited for something for so long, it can be difficult to recognize when it is here. Maybe it looks different or feels different than you think it should, but that doesn’t lessen the miracle that it is. I think that’s why taking hold of patient intensity gives us the eyes to see and the confidence to claim it.

I can be an intense competitor. Every run is important and I take every run seriously, no matter the stakes. Intensity without patience leads to frustration. Instead of roping to catch, you can start trying not to miss, which sounds the same, but it’s a completely different mindset. Intensity must be met with patience. The opportunity still has to be the right one in order to capitalize on the run.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s so many outside factors that come into play with both intensity and patience. And it looks different for all of us. I can workout intensely, but I better be patient in knowing the results will come with consistency. I can rope intensely, but I have to be patient in the process doing each step deliberately and precisely. I can pray intensely, but I have to be patient and trust that God’s timing, His will, and His way are best. He knows more than I do. And His way is always good.

Whatever you are patiently enduring, I pray you keep the fire in knowing what’s coming. It may not look like you thought, but don’t let that opportunity pass you by. Let patience be in your fruit, but don’t let it rot into complacency. Keep the fire, keep the faith, and trust confidently in the process of what is to come.