Running with patience is a very difficult thing to do. The word running itself suggests the absence of patience, or an eagerness to reach the goal. Yet we often associate patience with lying down or standing still. We think of it as an angel who guards the bed of the disabled. Yet I do not believe that the kind of patience a disabled person may have is the hardest to achieve. There is another kind of patience that I believe is harder to obtain, the patience that runs. Lying down during a time of grief, or being quiet after a financial setback, certainly implies great strength, but I know of something that suggests even greater strength, the power to continue working after a setback, the power to still run with a heavy heart, and the power to perform your daily tasks with deep sorrow in your spirit. This is a Christlike thing. Many of us could tearlessly deal with our grief if only we were allowed to do so in private. Yet what is so difficult is that most of us are called to exercise our patience not in bed but in the open street, for all to see. We are called upon to bury our sorrows not in restful inactivity but in active service, in our workplace, while shopping, and during social events, contributing to other peoples joy. No other way of burying our sorrow is as difficult as this, for it is truly what is meant by running with patience. (Let us run with patience. Hebrews 12:1)
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 12:55:17 +0000
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