Monday, June 26, 2017

Patience While Under Construction

Patience Three-Hour Self-Guided Retreat Guide download here

Photo credit: CIFOR via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-ND

And [Jesus] told this parable: “A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. He told the vineyard worker, ‘Listen, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it even waste the soil?’

“But he replied to him, ‘Sir, leave it this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. Perhaps it will produce fruit next year, but if not, you can cut it down.’”
Luke 13:6-9

Ruth Bell Graham, late wife of evangelist Billy Graham, once saw a sign along a highway that she thought would be fitting to put on her gravestone. It said, "End of construction. Thank you for your patience."1 She had latched onto an important truth: As long as we are living, we are under construction. We are always learning and being shaped. And for that patience is required. Patience with ourselves. Patience with and from our family, friends, coworkers, and church family. Patience, even, with God!

Thankfully, God is patient. Jesus’ parable from Luke 13 declares that Good News to us. When most would be ready to be done with us for our fickleness and flaws, God is willing to patiently work with us and enrich us…coaxing growth and fruitfulness from us. This is the meaning of the Greek word Paul uses in Galatians 5:22 that is translated as “patience.” Patience has a sense of steadfastness and staying-power. Patience is being “long-tempered” instead of short-tempered. This quality in God contributed to our salvation. It is a quality in us that will save many a relationship.

Patience is important for our own peace of mind. As disciples of Christ, we are works-in-progress. Be patient with yourself in your progress as a Christian. Bono, lead singer of the rock group U2 captures the need for patience in our spiritual life perfectly:

“Your nature is a hard thing to change; it takes time…. I have heard of people who have life-changing, miraculous turnarounds, people set free from addiction after a single prayer, relationships saved where both parties ‘let go, and let God.’ But it was not like that for me. For all that ‘I was lost, I am found,’ it is probably more accurate to say, ‘I was really lost. I'm a little less so at the moment.’ And then a little less and a little less again. That to me is the spiritual life. The slow reworking and rebooting the computer at regular intervals, reading the small print of the service manual. It has slowly rebuilt me in a better image. It has taken years, though, and it is not over yet.2”

For further reflection of the role of patience in your life I invite you to take this month’s Three-Hour Retreat on Patience available for download at this link.

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