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In the movie, “Gran Torino,” Clint Eastwood stars and plays a bigoted widower.  Except for the language, it’s a powerful movie.  The priest in that movie is a marvelous example of patience. The priest relentlessly pursues this bigoted widower only to be rebuffed time and time again.  He is insulted, has the door slammed in his face but he continues his pursuit right to the end of the movie.  As I mentioned, he is a marvelous example of patience.

Now, patience is not one of our more common virtues.  As a matter of fact, most of us hate to wait.  Most of us are very impatient.  What was said of this woman can be said of us, “Dear Lord, give me patience and right now.”  But patience is of God!  The writers of the Bible are unanimous in their conviction that one of the crowning attributes of God is his patience.  The fruit of the Spirit is patience (Galatians 5:22).  What patience is not!  Patience is not laziness or indifference.  Neither is it resignation or defeatism or that fatalistic attitude toward life that sits back, twiddles its thumbs and hums, “Whatever will be, will be.”  If that’s what patience is then I’ll be urging impatience-that is, the unwillingness to accept things as they are.

Why is patience important?  For sure, there are a number of reasons why patience is crucial to vibrant living but I am only going to touch on three of those reasons.

First, because we make terrible mistakes when we get in a hurry!  Here’s a question!  How many marriages have ended with a sad conclusion because the people involved were too impatient to work things out.  One of the things to be avoided like the plague in marriage is “impatience.”  Then there is our impatience at traffic lights.  This impatience is causing multiple injuries and even deaths.  I could go on but you get the point.  Sometimes we make terrible mistakes when we get in a hurry.

Second, because we are called to love!  The apostle Paul says, “Love is patient” ( l Corinthians 13:4).  Writing in his book, “A Gardner Looks at the Fruits of the Spirit,” W. Philip Keller notes that “Patience is the powerful capacity of selfless love to suffer long under adversity” (page 117).  Better still, patience as love takes a long time to boil over.

Third, patience is important because it means that we have a quiet confidence that God is in control of this universe!  The late Bishop Ernest Fitzgerald described a friend who was well into his 80’s.  Amazingly, this friend could not be rattled or discouraged.  The Bishop remarked that his friend had something he didn’t have.  Finally, the Bishop said he came to understand: “His friend had lived a long time.  He had been through two world world wars, the Great Depression and seen empires rise and fall.  He had heard all the prophets of doom and seen the world move from the brink of one disaster to another.  But he had also seen the the sun rise every morning for 😯 years.  He still found the world beautiful and the remnants of goodness prevailing over the worst of things. He would share these things and then say, “Be patient son.  There is still goodness in the world, and it’s going to win…”(“Keeping Pace: inspirations In The Air” by Ernest  Fitzgerald, page 84).

Who really is in charge of this universe-God or us?  I’m banking on God and trust you are doing the same.  As people of faiths, we are called to practice patience.