Patience is a virtue. It is something we are taught from the moment we can remember. We learn how to be patient in school and we are told to have patience to succeed in life. But do we understand patience? Have you ever actually experienced having to be patient? I’m not talking about waiting for the car to be done at the shop or sitting in traffic on 285 behind hundreds of cars just trying to make it to work on time. I’m talking about spiritual patience, the ability to wait on the will of God.
To be candid, I am not a patient person but I’m working on it. In fact, it is something I’ve always struggled with. Sometimes I’ve caught myself getting annoyed and tired while I am waiting. I think about moments in my life where I have waited months, even years for a prayer to be answered. We often forget that the reason our prayers don’t get fixed in a day is because it’s God’s timing, not ours. By waiting and consistently praying, He teaches us patience. When I think of this, my mind goes to the airplane game parents play with small children when trying to feed them. They would fill up the spoon with a child-size portion and the child would sit there and wait, trusting with everything inside his tiny brain that mom or dad would make it and slowly but surely the snack would reach him. I like this analogy because in the end, God always provides – we just have to get through the waiting no matter how long. In John 14:18, He promises He “will not leave us as orphans, He will come to us.”
Patience is more than a willingness to wait for God to answer our prayers. It is the understanding that His will may differ from our expectations and the faith that His vision for us is clear. One of my biggest tests of patience happened last year right before the pandemic. All of my life I planned to go to the University of Georgia. It was like a family tradition I knew I had to complete. So I worked hard all through high school and when the time came to apply to college, I applied to UGA and a couple of others including my dream school which I knew was impossible for me to be accepted to. The month of February 2020 felt perfect – everything was going my way until March 13th. That day was collectively one of the worst. I got rejected from the school I had planned my whole life to attend, the pandemic took away my senior year and the opportunity to star in a favorite musical. It felt like the world had turned its back on me. Slowly, as time kept moving on, I was rejected from school after school. It made no sense but I kept praying and just put my faith in God that He had a plan for me. On May 1st, I received my final letter from the last college I was waiting to hear from – my dream school. I opened the letter and, to my surprise, I had been accepted.
The waiting is often difficult but when we remain patient and trust God’s plan, the reward is greater than we could ever imagine. He makes the things we view as impossible possible, no matter how large they may seem. The Message version expresses the words of Isaiah -
“Those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles. They run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t lag behind.”
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