Wait for It!

“Great sermon on loving your enemies,” New Convert said with a sigh. “But I can’t even handle my annoying in-laws or the lazy people I work with.”

“I know what you mean,” chimed the young Holy Homemaker. “Some days my kids drive me crazy. I wish I were more patient with them.”

“Oh, no!” exclaimed Every Christian, who had joined them at the coffee urn in Fellowship Hall. “Never pray for patience!”

“Why not?” asked New Convert. So naïve.

Wise Old Saint behind the refreshment table gave her head a rueful shake. “Because when you do,” she said softly, “prepare to suffer.”

Thus a universal truth gets passed down from one generation of Christians to the next. To pray for patience is to invite trouble.

To pray for patience is to invite trouble

And rightly so. The original Bible words that mean patience are often translated as forbearance, endurance, longsuffering, or perseverance. Or my favorite, repeated in Revelation many times after describing yet another kind of persecution awaiting Christ-followers, “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints.” Yikes!

patience is the ability to make it through stressful circumstances with a smile on our face.

They all carry the sense of putting up with the disagreeable or difficult. For most of us, patience is the ability to make it through stressful circumstances with a smile on our face.

So what makes patience so hard? I’m going to start by saying we misunderstand what it is.

Just as he does with love, joy, and peace, Jesus demands patience from us as well. After all, patience is an attribute of God. If his indwelling Spirit is to form Christ in us, patience will be part of the deal. And like all fruit of the Spirit, we do not produce it. He does. But I get ahead of myself.

patience is one of God's characteristics

Patience is one of God’s characteristics.

Given some Bible storytelling, it’s hard to reconcile the God of Israel with the virtue of patience. I mean, God’s temper comes off as quick and hot. He’s wrathful, tempestuous, exceedingly impatient. That, my friends, is bad preaching.

It’s also highly ironic. Israel’s history is one long tribute to the forbearance of Yahweh. Time after time, God overlooked provocation the same way we as parents overlook our children’s failure to meet adult standards. We may be merciful to them when they err, but we never release them from our objective: one day they will have to be adults. And sometimes the lessons are hard to learn.

Patience remains focused on the end (goal)

Patience remains focused on the end (goal).

That’s the next thing. Patience is more than simply hanging on through hard times. It has an end in sight, and keeps an eye on it.

Literally, to be patient is to “abide under,” yet there is nothing beyond God’s sovereign control. To the extent that he puts up with anything, it’s for his own good reasons. He sets his own limits.

“Yes,” you say, “that’s all right for God. But I have no control over what I have to put up with.” You aren’t wrong, but you might be missing the point. Let me repeat. Patience keeps an eye on the end, not on the circumstances.

And God is able to help us do it. Jesus suffered under the proving of his faith (Heb 5.7-8). That’s why he came. During his earthly life, he was subject like us to the course of nature and the rigors of life among sinful people. Having thus shared in our creature-hood, his Spirit within is now able to train us in patient endurance, in longsuffering, in perseverance.

Patience is a Process

Patience is a process.

It’s a process of learning and a process of doing. But think about that for a second. The startling conclusion is that we will need patience in the life to come.

As Paul pointed out, these “light and momentary afflictions” are working for us an eternal weight of glory that far outweighs them all (2 Co 4.17). That is, “if we endure, we will reign with him” (2 Ti 2.12). And what characterizes his reign even now? Seated at the right hand of God, Jesus waits (Heb 10.12-13). Jesus has the ability to wait for things to develop. He is a God of process.

This insight changes the complexion of patience, of God. He is NOT an impetuous deity who acts and reacts in an instant, over and done. Process is everywhere. The formation of the cosmos and the cycle of life. Embryonic growth and human development. Photosynthesis and a happy marriage. Education and eschatology. Raising crops and religious reform. Workflow and the way of the cross. Everything. Everything is a process.

The same with bearing fruit in the Spirit. The formation of the divine nature in us drives home the point that God loves process.

Patience is essential to our understanding of the afterlife.

Patience is essential to our understanding of the afterlife.

Still, I have to admit that one thing I always thought was exempt from process is the afterlife. God himself never changes.

Heaven is the goal: just get there.

Jesus described hell as a place where “worm does not die and the fire never goes out.”

Isn’t Christ’s an eternal kingdom, an everlasting dominion that will not pass away?

The essence of heaven is righteous perfection, an enduring state of pure blissful happily-ever-aftering. The very concept oozes permanence, immutability. Is this not the antithesis of process?

Yet God builds patience into his saints. Why? What is the nature of our eternal existence that patience should be required? I mean, sure, God needs a lot of patience dealing with sinners every day. But that won’t be an issue in heaven, will it?

Sadly, our thoughts here answer little. Mainly we have very little idea what heaven will be like. We just have to get past St. Peter’s clipboard at the pearly gates. There we’ll pick up a custom-made harp and hear a lecture on not offending other denominations who think they’re alone. Then we must find our assigned seats on a designated cloud and get down to the business of making heavenly music. Forever. The only sense in which we’ll need patience in that scenario is if we don’t happen to like harp music.

Could we be more wrong?

The essence of patience is that we await a better outcome. If patience is required to reign with Christ, then we can be sure of this: each passing moment will bring ever-improving life.

In a world without pain or tears, we will move from joy to joy. That's a future worth waiting for.