Our children in our Child Development Center have been learning about the fruits of the Spirit over the last few weeks. You remember those fruits that are given to us by the Holy Spirit, don’t you? Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”. It makes my heart leap for joy knowing the children are learning early these attributes.
The one fruit that always seems to give me pause is patience. As long as I can remember, I’ve had trouble with that one. Patience has never been my long suit. As a child, I wanted to know how to do things. How to tie my shoes, how to read, how to ride a bicycle, just to name a few, were frustrating to me because they didn’t come immediately. I was never good at putting models together, because I didn’t want to wait for the glue to dry.
I believe in life, it’s that way for many of us. We have wants and desires, but we don’t have the patience to see them to completion. They allude us because we are short on patience.
Successful people tell us its not luck that usually brings success, its patience and tenacity. Being able to stick with what you’re working toward brings about the reward of success. In the long run, patience will pay off.
I was thinking about how we get past the hurts and wounds we encounter in this life. Some never get over what they have experienced. They let the wounds in relationships color their world going forward. They never give time for the wounds to heal, to let anger subside, and forgiveness to come forth.
That kind of healing takes time and patience. You have probably heard it said, “Time heals all wounds in mice and men.” I think there is a common misperception that quote can be found in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. It never appears there. The earliest known equivalent is from ancient Greece. The poet Meander wrote, “time is a healer of all necessary evils.”
Time can be a healer if we allow it. If we can tap into the fruit of the Spirit which is patience, we will find our lives will be better for it. Its difficult to practice patience because I want it right now! That’s the joke, isn’t it? Give me patience, and give it to me right now.
In Romans 12:2 Paul writes, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” I think if we turned that sentence around and started with be constant in prayer, that might be a way for us to discover more patience. If we start everything with prayer, asking God for God’s will to be done and for us to have the patience to allow God to work in us, we might begin to see some patience develop in us.
In Ephesians 4:1-2 we hear Paul as he pleads with us to be patient. “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love”. It seems patience with others depends on the love we have for one another. Love will move us to be patient with another.
The psalmist adjures us in Psalm 27:14, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord”. Again, waiting on the Lord, being patient with each other, that seems to be the key to healing. And in Proverbs 15:18 we are told “A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel”. It just might be that we can stave off the harshest of wounds we inflict on one another if we allow patience to come to the fore. Its easy in arguments, to lose our temper and say hurtful things, do hurtful things. Its much harder to muster up patience when we are being wounded. Look at the outcome of when we let patience well up in us, it can bring a calmness to an otherwise heated situation. And we know when we are in the heat of anger, our words and actions may not represent our best selves or intentions.
It seems time and patience can truly bring about healing and move us in the ways God would have us to go. My prayer for all of us is, May God help us to find the patience deep within us so we can bear with one another in the purest form of love.”
Your companion on the Way,
Pastor Tom