Patience

Photo by Paul Dufour on Unsplash

"But the fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, PATIENCE..."

Uncharacteristically, and more than a little ironically, it's taken me some time to piece together my thoughts on the gift of patience.

I self-define as one of the most impatient people I know. Queuing isn't just a challenge; it's something I actively avoid doing. Waiting for something evokes frustration, discomfort and even anger. As an inherently organised and systematic human being, I struggle with anything that takes longer than I believe that it should.

And this is where I realise that of course patience is a fruit of the Spirit. It requires God, within us, to transform our human belief that our expectation of time is the right one.  And, I'm learning that God's timeframe is not the same as mine. So patience isn't just a good quality to have as a human being; it is an essential part of being a Christian.

Throughout my adult life, waiting has been a recurring theme. Waiting for a permanent job contract; a house to live in; the next career step to be revealed; relationships to develop; what the future holds. And I don't think that this is an accident on God's part, for one of His most impatient people. Because alongside patience comes another quality that is incredibly important: the quality of trust.

The Message translation of the Bible describes this fruit, patience, as "A willingness to stick with things" and I am always challenged by the implications that this has. Because when we resolve to be patient we are committing a situation to something other than ourselves. Whether it's as simple as waiting in a long queue or as significant as waiting for the right job to come, we are resolving to allow an outcome to happen that is beyond our control.

But not beyond God's.

And so we come full circle to the reason this fruit is so very significant for everything that we wait for. Because ultimately, we are waiting. But God is not. God is outside of time and of space and sees the full picture. So I'm learning that when we receive the gift of patience and learn to hold onto it, we are simultaneously allowing the God who created time and space to be in charge of our lives.

And of course, knowing that these fruit are connected, we best trust when we experience love, and joy, and peace. The God who lavishes these things upon me will not let me down.

More than any other, perhaps, the gift of patience is tested. It's pretty obvious when we ask for patience, we'll experience situations that will challenge our ability to be so. That's probably why I've been asking for this gift - and being challenged in it - for a while.

The fruit of patience yields some incredible things though. When we do in fact, develop a willingness to stick with things, there is the potential to discover so many more things along the way. Those rare times I've actually been patient, God has provided in abundance - gifts, skills, people, money.

And I've grown along the way; learning more about the world, the part I have within it, and the character of the one who created me.

Patience can feel synonymous with slowness - but in our fast-paced world, that's not always such a bad thing. We are culturally conditioned to believe that slowing down is a negative factor, but by doing things with patience and less rush, there are riches to glean along the path.

The gift of patience is worth the time.


This is the fifth blog in a series on the Fruit of the Spirit. Follow the series by the label "The Gifts".