Tag Archives: Patience

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Love Endures All Things


Rio Jimenoa in Jarabacoa, the Dominican Republic.

Rio Jimenoa in Jarabacoa, the Dominican Republic.

“’God is asking you to go through some dark places for love of Him. But though you may seem to stumble much and even at times to fall, yet you are doing all He asks of you when you continue to say “Thy will be done,” even though you have to force yourself to say it. He is without question calling on you to suffer somewhat for Him, and I suppose it is ever the case with us all that we think we could endure so much more easily everything except that which He wants us to endure.” (Hughson, Shirley Carter. The Spiritual Letters of Shirley Carter Hughson. West Park, NY: Holy Cross Press, 1953, p. 3.)

Endurance involves an unchanging circumstance of some sort that I would not have chosen or do not enjoy. I don’t use the word “endure” about pleasant or welcome things. In the hard places, my love for Jesus has an opportunity to be tested. It’s easy to love when things go according to “my will be done,” but when they go against my wishes, I can say, “Jesus, I love you more than I love my preferences. I love you more than I love getting my way. Your kingdom really is better than mine. Enable me to wait for the fruit of your kingdom in this situation in which I find myself.”

What are the endurance places in your life these days? How might this be the unexpectedly perfect place to express your love for Jesus?

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Unhurried: Is Jesus Too Slow?


IM001884_2

My son, Chris, and I taking a walk at the Pecos Benedictine Abbey (2003)

The question in the title may make you uncomfortable, but whenver we feel impatient with God, we’re basically saying He doesn’t move fast enough for our taste.

Kosuke Koyama (1929-2009) was a Japanese theologian who “defended a theology that he considered to be accessible to the peasantry in developing nations, rather than an overly academic systematic theology (Wikipedia).” Listen to what he says about the feeling of needing to help God out because of how slow He’s moving:

“The reign of God begins with God’s initiative. God carries us. We do not carry God. No matter how resourceful we are, we are not to ‘carry God’. Genuine resourcefulness comes from the experience of ‘being carried by God’ instead of ‘carrying God’. This, however, is against our liking. We still want to identify resourcefulness with ‘carrying God’. ‘If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’ says Jesus (Matt. 16.24). We are so ‘resourceful’. We do not want to follow him. Jesus is too slow! We want to run before him. In evangelism? Yes. The way of Jesus is too slow, inefficient and painful. Jesus’ resourcefulness is love. Ours is money. We adjust Matthew 16.24 to the high-powered methodology of Madison Avenue. We feel obliged to carry Jesus. He is not as resourceful as we would like. He is not as spectacular as we had hoped. He is not as exciting as we expected. We have to carry him!” (Koyama, Kosuke. Three Mile an Hour God. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1979, p. 35.)

What do you think Koyama means to be the difference between God carrying us and us trying to carry God? What do you think about the experience of Jesus sometimes moving slower than we prefer?

(Originally posted October 2009)

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Waiting for an Unhurried God


Today (Monday) begins an extended window of work on my Unhurried Time writing project. The ministry busyness of recent months has been a season of thinking and reading on the theme, but not doing much writing. Now, I have no preaching, retreat leading or teaching commitments between now and April 9. In preparation last week, I was reviewing my notes from Eugene Peterson’s Tell It Slant (Eerdmans 2008) and came across this:

“God is not in a hurry. We are repeatedly told to ‘Wait for the Lord.’ But that is not counsel that is readily accepted by followers of Jesus who have been conditioned by promises of instant gratification…. Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, one of our great modern Isaianic prophets who had extensive experience with violence in two World Wars, wrote, ‘The greatest temptation of our time is impatience, in its full original meaning: refusal to wait, undergo, suffer. We seem unwilling to pay the price of living with our fellows in creative and profound relationships.” (Peterson, Eugene. Tell It Slant. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2008, p. 72.)

Reflection question:

  • Where are you feeling the most impatient in this season of your life? How might that be the very place where God is seeking to deepen your roots of unhurried relationship with Him and with others?

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Patience: An Unhurried Virtue


Though I’m not writing a great deal right now on my Unhurried project, I continue to think and reflect a lot on this theme. My conviction that hurry is a primary problem among Christian leaders continues to grow.

So one arena I’ve been thinking about is virtue. The fruit of the Spirit most related to unhurry is patience. Here are a few random paragraphs about that.

When I think about how I’ve sometimes “done” church, I ask myself which would be better: ten one-year ministry cycles, each with various priorities and emphases (the latest “big thing,” for example), or one ten-year ministry journey in the same direction with the same solid priorities and vital spiritual soil? Which might produce better and more lasting fruit? I don’t think it’s a hard question to answer, even if it is a challenge to be that patient.

When Paul was listing qualities of love in his letter to the Corinthians, the very first he mentions is that “love is patient.” Impatience is unloving. Compassion is patient. Affection is patient. Jesus was patient. Caring for another takes time. Love is patient.

We’ve probably all heard someone say, “Never pray for patience!” But it strikes me that Paul did just that when he prayed that the Colossian Christians would be “strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience (Colossians 1:11).” I may not like how growing in patience feels, but I do long to be a more loving person. Patience is a primary reality of caring.

The basic Greek work for patience in the New Testament is makrothumia or, literally, “long suffering.” Our culture tends to be impatient because one of our basic goals is to reduce and eliminate all suffering, let alone any discomfort. Patience is hard. Patience is uncomfortable. Patience may involve suffering something in my life that may never change, but doing so in a spirit of love.

Since this blog post is sort of a “writing seed” for my project, I’d appreciate any other creative thoughts you have about patience and unhurry.

Where has your patience been most tested recently? As you look at these circumstances and relationships, how is God inviting you respond with care, with patience?

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Unhurried: Is Jesus Too Slow?


IM001884_2

My son, Chris, and I taking a walk at the Pecos Benedictine Abbey (2003)

The question in the title may make you uncomfortable, but whenver we feel impatient with God, we’re basically saying He doesn’t move fast enough for our taste.

Kosuke Koyama (1929-2009) was a Japanese theologian who “defended a theology that he considered to be accessible to the peasantry in developing nations, rather than an overly academic systematic theology (Wikipedia).” Listen to what he says about the feeling of needing to help God out because of how slow He’s moving:

“The reign of God begins with God’s initiative. God carries us. We do not carry God. No matter how resourceful we are, we are not to ‘carry God’. Genuine resourcefulness comes from the experience of ‘being carried by God’ instead of ‘carrying God’. This, however, is against our liking. We still want to identify resourcefulness with ‘carrying God’. ‘If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’ says Jesus (Matt. 16.24). We are so ‘resourceful’. We do not want to follow him. Jesus is too slow! We want to run before him. In evangelism? Yes. The way of Jesus is too slow, inefficient and painful. Jesus’ resourcefulness is love. Ours is money. We adjust Matthew 16.24 to the high-powered methodology of Madison Avenue. We feel obliged to carry Jesus. He is not as resourceful as we would like. He is not as spectacular as we had hoped. He is not as exciting as we expected. We have to carry him!” (Koyama, Kosuke. Three Mile an Hour God. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1979, p. 35.)

What do you think Koyama means to be the difference between God carrying us and us trying to carry God? What do you think about the experience of Jesus sometimes moving slower than we prefer?

Buy a copy of Three Mile an Hour God: Biblical Reflections on Amazon.com