Now that things are beginning to open up, we are being encouraged to resume our “temporarily interrupted lives.” As though that is possible. Because “going forward” is not the same as “going back.” There is no “back” to go to. Our new “normal” doesn’t mean we are through with the need for patience.
Patience is “the ability to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering calmly or without complaint.” There are still going to be delays, troubles and suffering before we come out on the other side of this pandemic, this recession, this national nightmare of racism. We actually have a very long way to go. So,
“Have patience with all things but first of all with yourself.”
Francis de Sales
“Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you.”
Ovid
You know that when your faith is tested, you learn to be patient in suffering. If you let that patience work in you, the end result will be good. You will be mature and complete. You will be all that God wants you to be.
James 1:3-4 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
“Teach us, O Lord, the disciplines of patience,
for to wait is often harder than to work.”
Peter Marshall
“Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness.
But to keep going when the going is hard and slow – that is patience.” Unknown
We do not want you to become lazy, but to be like those
who believe and are patient, and so receive what God has promised. Hebrews 6:12 Good News Translation (GNT)
Have patience, God isn’t finished with us yet. (Philippians 1:6)
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:11-13 New International Version (NIV)
“Faith is the strength by which a shattered world
shall emerge into the light.”
Helen Keller