Are you a patient person? To ask another way, are you good at waiting? Patience can be a test of our physical, emotional, or spiritual limits. When we consider what it takes to be a well-waiting person, it’s not about the interval or the outcome, but making the most of the meantime.

The old expression “Patience is a virtue” still has value today, but in our culture of immediacy, it is more accurate to say that patience is a lost art. Patience has as much to do with being disciplined as it does with the length of time one waits. Patience is measured by the capacity we have to maintain a calm, level, productive mindset until the unknown is known…and the gap in between can be a Holy place.

Occupying a patient state is akin to claiming a Holy Pause. If we know we will need to surrender to the moment, patience can shine a Holy light on the very -thing that would be best for us to do…nothing, something, or everything. Waiting can be a blessing because there is something we need to pay attention to that requires us to be quiet to hear or be focused on to see. We may have the urge to do everything we can to fix something or find an answer, but then we dash into chaos without understanding the consequences. We may want to check-out emotionally and feel like giving up. But during that Holy Pause, offering a breath prayer, engaging in an act of meditation, reading or reciting cherished scripture, or just asking for help or advice can relieve the urge to try and solve a presently unsolvable dilemma.

Patient waiting is also an opportunity to be productive in a previously unrecognized way. If there isn’t something that can be immediately done related to one circumstance, what positive task can we undertake in the meantime to address another need? This allows us to be in control of something where a good outcome is possible. It’s more than just a distraction; it’s a chance to channel our energy for the purpose of self-care or to offer a blessing to others.

As many times as I have read 1 Corinthians 13, only recently did I pay attention to when Paul transitions his letter to show us a more excellent way. When introducing the way of charity and love the first quality he says it possesses is patience. Patience reveals we may have a choice to make…I can do this right, or I can do this right now. The world lives and dies in the right now. But our time can align with God’s time when patience presents us with a Holy Pause. Perhaps this season of Lent is that opportunity to claim the meantime…to give meaning to the time when we must wait, and participate, in what Jesus is doing with us and for us.

We humans have a hard time dealing with the unknown. We may say we enjoy a good mystery, but that’s only in a fictional sense. Life itself is a mystery, and a life of faith is even more so. May we patiently walk the road of the unknown knowing Christ lovingly and patiently walks with us.

Rev. Dr. David Weatherly
President/CEO