Editorial August 11, 1986 Issue

Patience—a passive longing or an active trust?

WILLIAM E. MOODY

It has been called a Christian virtue. Parents teach their children, from an early age, its practical necessity. (And then when their three-year-old spills the milk for the fourth time at dinner, the parents find they may need to be better examples of it themselves!) Certainly, as most of us have recognized at one time or another, this virtue is something we could all use more of. We learn from experience that the quality called patience makes for considerably less frustration and disappointment in our day-to-day lives and for a greater calm and peace in the face of adversity.

But there is a deeper dimension to patience as well. That deeper dimension has to do with the vital role that patience plays in our individual spiritual development, in learning and doing God's will, in Christian healing, and in working out our salvation.

People often think of patience as at best a kind of laid-back expectation that eventually there will come a change for the better. In this sense, patience may be little more than getting comfortable in the old rocking chair on the porch, folding one's hands, and sitting out the afternoon rainstorm.

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