A Lesson In Patience
We finished our takeaway coffees and headed back to the ward to wait. It was quiet, there weren’t a lot of people around. The room was nice, it even had a little view of the city parks.
It wasn’t long before the nurses wheeled my daughter back and I laughed to find her already sucking on an icy pole. It had gone well, she was ready for recovery.
As we settled into our night in hospital, I found myself reminding her as well as myself that things take time. The healing and recovery process will take time. The overnight stay will take time. The meal trolley will take time. Everything will take, we just need to be patient.
Of course, this is easier said than done. Patience is a virtue, so the saying goes - but what does that actually mean? How can we practice patience in a world that is saturated with things like ‘two-minute noodles’, ‘same-day shipping’, and ‘instant download’? It’s hard, I agree. The Bible, however, holds a lot of important directions if we take the time to lean in and practice patience. Then, the next time we find ourselves in a posture of waiting, we’ll be the wiser for it.
Here are just a couple of instances where patience is mentioned by Paul as he speaks with the Galatian Christians of his time.
Galatians 5:22-23 “The Holy Spirit produces a different kind of fruit: unconditional love, joy, peace, patience, kindheartedness, goodness, faithfulness; gentleness, and self-control. You won’t find any law opposed to fruit like this.”
In these verses, we are introduced to the ‘Fruits of the Spirit. This is a list of nine behaviors that a person can display in their life as an outward example of the Holy Spirit’s work. We will never get them all right or all right at the same time, but they are what should happen as we turn from our sinful ways and instead reach out for our God in love.
One of these fruits, the result of our ongoing efforts, is patience. When looked at in conjunction with the other fruits listed above, we see that patience is actually not so much “a fundamental virtue as much as a complex of other virtues” specifically self-control, humility and generosity (read more about that here). These four fruits are demonstrated most evidently in the life of Jesus as He interacts with the people around Him. Humans are slow to learn; they whine and complain and often lack the faith that Jesus was asking them to display. In all his dealings with these hoards of people, it would be easy for Jesus to give up His self-control and complain about them. He could forego His generous nature and stop giving His time to them. In these imaginary instances, this would then mean that Jesus loses His patience with His people. Something He never did and will never do, but goes to show how these fruits are intertwined.
So when we think of patience in our own worlds, are we simply thinking in terms of how long the microwave will take to heat up our mac and cheese, or how long the staff member at the checkout is taking to scan items? Or are we thinking deeper and more connectedly about patience and how we practice other fruits like generosity and self-control in those moments of waiting? Perhaps if we consider patience in its larger form we might find that practicing it and remaining in a chapter of waiting is easier and less of a burden.
Galatians 6:9 “May we never tire of doing what is good and right before our Lord because in His season we shall bring in a great harvest if we can just persist.”
Another useful look at what patience as a virtue can look like is found in the book of Galatians. In Galatians, Paul is speaking to the people about the problems of trusting their own flesh and deeds over-relying on the power of God and His Spirit to carry out good works.
When we can’t see the results of our hard work, long efforts and deep commitment to things, it’s often easy to grow tired. We give up and give in. We quit and find new avenues that we think are better because we’ll be able to see the outcomes from all our hard work playing out. We ultimately lose our patience. This is what Paul is talking about though - be patient. God often allows His children to see the fruits of their labours, in this life and the next. Reaping the rewards of eternal life is nothing that happens over night, and sometimes we must work our entire lives for it - but carrying on doing what we believe is right in accordance with our of own faith and His word means that one day - in this world or in His Kingdom - we will see what we desire to see if we simply keep going.
In just two sections of this book, Paul gives us a lot of food for thought and calls for action. Firstly he lists the fruits of the Spirit and if you look at the verses on either side of these two you find that he has been preaching to the people about their new found freedoms in Christ. With these freedoms come the gifts of being able to be like Him, too. These are the nine fruits that he tells the people about. We are called to consider these characteristics of Jesus and how following Him and living in our freedoms means acknowledging these as gifts from God rather than His unrealistic expectations of how we must act at all times. We are free to receive these gifts and live them out as examples of His Spirit in our lives instead. We say goodbye to our old ways of selfish living and instead, embrace this new freedom.
The call for action comes in chapter 6. Carry on. Keep on going. Don’t stop. These are the challenges that Paul gave to the Galatian Christians and these are the challenges we are given today, too. Be patient in your work - be patient in your waiting - be patient in your endurance of hard times, slow times, lonely times and bleak times. Be active in your patience and take on every opportunity that you can, being a blessing to those around you. This is how we demonstrate the nine characteristics of Christ, their intertwined nature and the gifts that come with the freedom God offers His children.
Where are you finding that you aren’t practicing patience well in your life? Is there a way that you can consider it as an intertwined extension of other fruits of the spirit that might help you to be more patient? How might this be a blessing to someone around you?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I'm Hannah - mama to two littles and dipping my toes into my next right thing as I learn to navigate this chapter God has called me to. I generally hover in that space between consciousness and coffee as I try to take each day knowing I need grace to get through it. I'm a lover of good words, strong conversation, a well-worn thrift store and a doughy doughnut.