My fellow travelers on Christ’s pilgrimage, be patience.

After the initial three fruit of the Spirit Paul lists, patience is next. It is the first of the attributes defining love in another letter (1 Cor 13), and it is the first in a set of following listed traits which are equally well-defined by their anti-examples.

What I mean is this. A patient person is a patient person no matter what, but the true measure of their patience stands out in more apparent and brilliant contrast when we see them responding as they do right next to someone who is rudely impatient and throwing a related fit. Similarly, the very kind person is a refreshment to my soul directly after my heart has been shredded. And the deeply gentle person quietly shines beside the brash and rough person.

Patience is not a natural state of the human psyche. Some people may be more comfortable with a sanguine response to the stuff of life, but we have to learn how to be patient. Good parents, grandparents, teachers, and other role models can help with that in our formative years. Yet, in the end, it is like a musical or artistic skill. It must be continuously cultivated through practice and opportunities to perform whenever they may arise.

And in the end, looking at great examples of patience inspires us to be more patient too. In days gone by, we would often hear someone say, “So and so has the patience of a saint.” But we, as saints bound for Heaven, are all to have more and more of the patience modeled by our Jesus. We are to be His patience here on earth.

We are to be His patience as a display of controlled anger and selfish desires, for patience resides in an increasingly-content heart. We must trust that He ultimately has everything under control, so we don’t need to get worked up about it.

And we are to be His patience as a display of mercy. In another New Testament letter, Peter talked about how the Lord is not slow in expressing His just wrath and delaying his second coming. Rather, He is patient and merciful, giving those who yet live a little more time to repent and turn to Him. Therefore, we should also be patient in our love for others and our ongoing prayer for them, that they may seek and know Christ and grow in His light.

For He was, and still is, patient with us. And when we really remember that fact, it will often drain the bluster of our impatience.

Dear ones in Christ, be who you are. Be His patience. The world desperately needs it.

(Photo credit above: page from a speech manuscript, penned by George Washington, displayed at the NY Public Library.)