The Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans "But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." (Romans 8:25) He lists patience at one of the fruits of the Spirit in his letter to the Galatians: "The Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and self-control." (Galatians 5:22) Of all the fruits of the Spirit, I think patience is the one that is hardest to learn, to live and enjoy. We learn patience sitting in a hospital bed waiting to recover from a mysterious disease or waiting beside the bed waiting for a loved one to recover. We learn patience waiting for a child to come home from his or her first date or waiting for a child coming home from their first day at school or waiting for a son or daughter or husband or wife or brother or sister to come home from his or her deployment to war. Pateince is hard to learn. I have been known to discourage people from praying for patience because the answer to those prayers is usually long and trying. And yet patience is one of the six fruits of the spirit, right up there with love and kindness. It must be of great value to God and an important gift to us as God's people. And it is invaluable as we find ourselves more and more engaged in the wilderness of life.
The root of the word "patience" is the Latin "pati" or "to bear". The meaning is "sustaining pain, long suffering, waiting for calmness, perserverence". It is the gift God gives us in the very person of Jesus Christ, who suffered on our behalf so that in our suffering we would know that we are never alone. And yet patience is not a veil of tears activity but as way of expressing faith in the midst of stuggle. It is not a curse of God, but rather a gift of God to allow us to get through the difficult parts of life. So I thank God for patience as we head into day 13 in the wilderness. And I pray along with Reinhold Neibuhr, the whole Serenity prayer:
"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as the pathway to peace. Taking as He did, this sinfulworld as it is. Not as I would have it. Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will. That I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy in the next."
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