Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Patience is probably one of the most necessary virtues and the most difficult to practice. James 1:2-4 tells us, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
Most of us want to be more patient, provided we don’t have to suffer to achieve it. But if we believe James, we only learn patience when we suffer or are forced to wait.
This is an era of instant gratification. Thanks to smart phones, we no longer have to struggle in libraries to look up things but we can simply “Google” them. When radios and televisions first were available, a family would have one radio or one TV and everyone would have to decide which programs to listen to or watch. Now we can stream things on cell phones and computers. Through the 1950’s, most families only had one telephone and family members had to take turns using it. I grew up in a rural area in which we still had party line telephone service. Several families would be on one line, meaning that families had to take turns to make phone calls and the neighbors could listen in your phone calls. Want patience? Just be on a party line with a family that has a popular teen-age girl who will tie up the line for hours.
In those days, we shopped for clothing before school started, for Christmas presents, and perhaps for birthday or anniversary or graduation presents. Given time, my mom would order things from Sears and Roebuck or Montgomery Ward, mailing in her order along with a check. The Christmas catalogues from those two marketing giants gave us entertainment for weeks, not to mention later being recycled as targets for BB guns or even as toilet paper. We had to remain patient while waiting for those orders to arrive.
Growing up in a farm family also taught patience. Raising crops and animals, one never knows what might happen. One year, much of our hog crop was wiped out by TGE, a terrible diarrheal disease that hit baby pigs hard. There were other years when drought or excess rain caused problems with grain crops. You learn to endure and to be patient because there’s nothing else you can do.
Our problem is that we all still need Holy Spirit patience. No smart phone is going to make up for the loss of a job, or the need to wait nine months to see if a baby will be born healthy. Perhaps the area in which we require the most patience is in human relations. No matter how much we try, we can still find ourselves burdened with coworkers or relatives who get on our last nerve. Work situations may try our patience almost past endurance. And then there are the challenges of parenting.
The late Sam Levenson was fond of saying that “Insanity is hereditary; you get it from your children.” Levenson, an experienced teacher, was referring to the crying need every parent has for patience as they raise children. And these days, many people find themselves in the “sandwich” generation, parenting children and dealing with their own parents at the same time.
How do we get patience? Unfortunately, unlike the items we used to order from Sears or Montgomery Ward, there’s only one sure way to get patience: suffering. If everything is going smoothly in our lives, we don’t need patience. We need patience for the times when things are going badly, when we are frustrated, and when everything seems to be falling apart.
One of the most common phrases in the Twi language of Ghana is “Di abotere,” meaning “exercise patience.” Yet another similar phrase is “Abotere y3,” meaning “patience is good.” Every language in Ghana likely has phrases that translate that way because the Ghanaians have realized that things don’t always happen instantly and that patience is very necessary. Just try to exercise patience and you find it’s one of the most difficult things you have ever attempted.
We can suffer without learning how to be patient. We can gripe and complain and post things on social media and generally throw hissy fits about our problems. Or we can ask God to teach us what we need to learn and “let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” When we ask, God will give us the strength to endure the trials and to learn from them.
Yesterday was a very frustrating day. My husband lost one of his hearing aids at the guest house where we were staying in Accra. The meeting we were to have turned into a less than satisfactory phone conversation. I was supposed to be on Zoom meetings that would give me CPD points toward my medical license, but I didn’t learn how to access them until noon, losing out on at least two hours of the meetings. And the trip between Accra and Kumasi that used to take 4 hours took nearly 8 hours due to heavy traffic. What helped was the friend who was driving for us. Our friend is a man of great wisdom, understanding, and patience. For years he tolerated a difficult work situation, retiring successfully. As we vented to our friend, he kept repeating, “It shall be well.”
Our friend was right. Romans 8:18 tells us, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” No matter what we are enduring here, if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are citizens of heaven and will be there when we die. We can be patient because we know that our problems here are not the end of the story. God has a glorious inheritance waiting for us. And we can be patient because God will give us patience when we ask. We don’t have to try to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps to gain patience. Sometimes, the harder we try, the more frustrated we will become. But God is infinitely patient and therefore can give us divine patience when we ask. Just remember though, patience is borne out of suffering and not out of ease.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help us to welcome the Holy Spirit into our hearts and lives, knowing that if Your Spirit lives in us, we will exhibit Your patience. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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