In preparation for my Sunday school class next year I have started to meditate on different aspects of love. Here are some thoughts on patience.
Patience is not merely waiting—it is waiting in surrender. Why do they call hospitalized individuals patients? Because they must wait on the doctor with faith, trusting and believing that he knows what he is doing. Doctors may be fallible, but our God is not. We can trust that God (and only God) has everything under control which gives us the ability to endure every situation and moment that confronts us with quiet forbearance. We cannot come to a place of absolute trust that allows perfect patience in any other place than in our relationship with God, as everything in this world is fallible. If we want to learn to be patient, we must first learn to trust in God. When our trust is founded on the Rock of Ages, we can endure every test, trial, and disappointment in life. If someone lets us down yet again, let us remember that our trust lies in God and that we can trust Him in the lives of others as well as our own.
Likewise, our hope must also be founded in God, whether dealing with ourselves or others. When our hope is founded on the God who has the power to build us up, we are given the strength to endure our own failings and our own seemingly slow progress as well as the failings and slow progress of others. Patience involves contentment in every situation—contentment and peace.
It means that we must accept whatever trial or test comes our way—it also means that we must accept each other and ourselves in spite of (and including) our shortcomings. This does not mean that we are enabling others to remain the way they are, nor does it mean that we are growing stagnant and complacent with where we are in our own walk. Acceptance is an acknowledgement of unconditional love—it is saying that I accept you for who you are at this moment, and it is also saying that I accept myself for who I am at this moment. (Who am I to reject something that God himself has accepted and loves unconditionally?) It is an acceptance of where God has us in our walks at this time, but it is also an acknowledgement of our ability to grow. Without a patient acceptance from both others and ourselves, our perception of God’s acceptance and unconditional, patient love is hindered and our maturation is stinted.
Love bears with others, meaning we are meant to come alongside others and share their load, but it does not involve control in any way—love involves instead the patient surrender to the will, timing, and methods of God. Only in God can we truly love those around us.
