On Waiting vs. Patience

Lately, I've started watching this TV show you've never heard of called "Duck Dynasty." On one episode Phil Robertson was trying to teach his grandson about patience. During one particularly funny moment, Phil asked his grandson "Now what are we learning?" to which his grandson answered "uh... waiting?" That answer really got me thinking about the difference between waiting and patience.
It might be pretty obvious that there is a huge difference between waiting and patience, but I really think that as Christians, we tend to blur the lines.
I used to work at a movie theater in Fort Collins, and one of the things the managers would always be pushing was that there should never be a time when we were standing around. Even if there were no customers, no popcorn on the ground, nothing needing to be restocked, we were supposed to find something to do. I think the same concept applies to faith. Even when it seems like theres nothing big that needs to be done, if we are looking for opportunities to be Christ to people, there is always something to do.
Patience is an active state of mind, while waiting is a passive state of being. Americans do a lot of waiting. Waiting for the light to turn green, waiting in line for the newest Lord of the Rings movie, waiting for a new status update to appear on your news feed. With the exclusion of texting at red lights, waiting is generally not accompanied by anything else productive (the productivity of texting at a red light is still in question). I'm not at all suggesting that anyone who ever waits or says "I'm waiting for ______" should be excommunicated and forced to break rocks on a chain gang, what I'm saying is that we, I, need to take a look at how much of my time is spent waiting.
I've often struggled with having the attitude that there's nothing for me to do right now. I worked in Lake Dallas, Texas for two summers as a youth minister, and the semesters between I constantly had to fight the attitude of waiting until I got back to Texas to do God's work. I've had many friends who, upon coming close to a major life transition, struggle with "just waiting" until the next phase of life to do God's will. That's where I have a problem with waiting. If waiting describes what I'm doing in my life, I'm doing it wrong.
God never guaranteed anyone tomorrow. If I continually live my life in a state of waiting, waiting for the next big move, waiting for graduation, waiting for summer, waiting for a mission trip, I'm wasting what God has given me; today. I probably come into contact with 50 strangers every day, drive past 4 cars with their hazards on each week, ignore 15 signs saying that "anything helps" in a month. Each day on my way to work, I drive by two hospitals, and half a dozen assisted living facilities, and a probably staggering number of unseen people in need.
This is what I need to hear: stop focusing on the waiting, start focusing on today.
Patience is all about living in contentment with where you are while longing for what's to come. Why do I feel the need to wait to live like citizen of the Kingdom of God until some artificial milestone when the Kingdom is already here? What exactly am I waiting for?
My purpose is here and now, not there and then.
I may not know the next objective, the next big step, or what's around the bend, but I certainly won't let that stop me from finding ways to serve my God today. I won't allow waiting to consume my life, but instead, I'll patiently follow God's will here and now, until He tells me otherwise. Waiting can be full of uncertainty and frustration, but patience brings peace and contentment. Even when life is ruled by uncertainty, my peace will come from being content with what God has given me. I will spend my time living for the Kingdom, not waiting for it. The Kingdom of God is at hand, and it's our responsibility as Christians to bring it to our neighbors.