1 Open my eyes, that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for me;
place in my hands the wonderful key that shall unclasp and set me free.
Silently now I wait for thee, ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine!
VU 371
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
I've noted before that I won't be remembered as a patient man. I've joked, somewhat ruefully, that I have trouble waiting for the microwave timer to get to zero. I sometimes watch in wonder as Ruth methodically figures out just about anything. She cleverly, patiently, figures out how to address knitting problems, put together barbecues, resolve computer issues. She actually enjoys assembling stuff while I view it as a necessary evil.
I've seen a couple of articles about patience as a Christian virtue lately and realize that it probably should be a spiritual topic for our time.
Social media is training us to assume that impatience should be the default mode of our lives, expecting everything to happen yesterday. I sense that our ability to focus, to attend to and ponder the important aspects of life is diminishing. During the COVID pandemic there was a sense that our enforced slowdown was making us more thoughtful but we emerged with a level of testiness that is evident all around us. We hear of temper tantrums on planes and see aggression on the roads.
With all the emphasis on kindness these days maybe we can make the connection with patience the apostle Paul wrote about to the Christian community. There are lots of other New Testament passages about patience as well, reminders that if we are in it for the long haul of Christian discipleship we need to practice it.
I've never forgotten the poster (above) which was in the chapel office of Kingston Penitentiary when I was a chaplain intern there years ago.
I hope you have the patience to get through this blog entry and read these intriguing words about the subject. They offer hope to the impatient among us.
Pastor and author James Howell has a memorable phrase about patience. Mindful of negative resonances like Vladimir and Estragon and Agnes Wickfield, he says that patience isn’t about passivity or frenzied distraction: it’s about “being impatient about one thing for a long time.” That’s true patience. Not idle waiting. Not absurdly sacrificial selflessness. It’s being impatient about one thing for a long time. That’s what a long obedience in the same direction truly is.
Reflection on patience is, in the end, a meditation on God’s patience. God doesn’t wait idly. In Jesus, God is proximate with us, tells us a different story, gives us reason to hope, and finally bears in his own body the scars of his commitment to us. Jesus is God’s long obedience in the same direction. God’s patience is exactly this: God is impatient—passionately impatient, crazily impatient, devotedly impatient—about one thing for a long time. That thing is us.
Samuel Wells is the vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London and author of Humbler Faith, Bigger God.
4 comments:
Patience is something I am really trying to work on. I have about the easiest, most stress-free commute to work, yet if I have a slow driver in front of me, I start getting twitchy. Sometimes it feels like a game of whack a mole - I pass one slow driver, only to have another one ahead. And I'm really not driving THAT fast(I promise).
When I finally get to work, I realize it wasn't as relaxing as it could have been, and that tension was completely self-inflicted. So I'll start with patience while behind the wheel and work from there!
David, this is where you chime in that I must be patient to support the Steelers and Habs.
You may be suffering from the dreaded White Male Syndrome when it comes to driving, Roger. This has been a decades-long affliction for me, and the first step might be acknowledging we need help. Perhaps a patience support group for those behind the wheel? As for the Steelers and Habs...peace be with you!
As I age, I find myself being less and less patient with myself, and the little things I cannot do quickly any more ! Arthritis in my hands makes me clumsy, and I become very impatient with my clumsiness (I have not dropped a bell yet, so I guess that is a good thing !)
Now there is the subject of another blog -- patience with ourselves. You've been a good and faithful servant, Judy, and still are. Be loving and kind to yourself!
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