A man was 
walking through a supermarket with a screaming baby in a shopping cart. A woman nearby noticed that time and again the man would say, “Keep calm, Albert. Keep calm, Albert.” Finally, in admiration for the man’s patience as the child continued to wail, the woman walked up to him and said, “Sir, I must commend you for your patience with little Albert.” To which the man replied, “Madam, I’m Albert!”
Considered a virtue, patience sometimes seems like a lost art in today’s world of instant gratification and immediate results. We are disappointed when an item ordered on the Internet isn’t in our hands within a few days. We scowl at the elderly lady stalling when the traffic light turns green. We become angered when our pain pills take time to do their work. How can we even describe our demeanor when waiting on hold to speak to a person at the IRS, and how many times have we told our children to just, “Be patient!” as our patience begins to wane?
Impatience isn’t just a modern-day problem. Think back to Moses shouting to his people: “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” (Numbers 20:10). What about Abraham and Sarah when the promised baby seemed to take forever? Jonah wished he were dead when his patience ran out, and Martha’s patience ran thin with her own sister when she said to Jesus, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” (Luke 10:40). Can you imagine how long her anger sizzled before she exploded with those words?
Patience is a virtue. However, patience toward those around us is one thing, but what about patience with the Lord? How patient are you with God? Have you ever been in a situation in which you were in a hurry but God wasn’t?
There is one saintly man in the Bible who is known for his patience. His name is Job, the man after whom the phrase “the patience of Job” was rightly named. Consider his plight. He lived a comfortable life with 7 sons, 3 daughters, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 donkeys, servants, a lovely wife, and a beautiful house. One day he lost the oxen and donkeys, the sheep and servants, the camels, his sons and daughters, and his house. If that were not enough to break Job’s heart, a few days later he was struck with severe sores over his entire body. And why did this happen? Because he was “blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1).
He was broken in heart, spirit, and body. How many of us at times have wondered, “Where are you, Lord, when I need you most?” Job put it this way: “If I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold” (Job 23:8-10).
Patience certainly is a virtue. And we would all do well to look at Job the next time we meet trials such as a slow moving line at a grocery store, a child who can’t seem to remember his multiplication tables, or a spouse who is habitually late. And when we really have our patience tested to its breaking point. Let’s also ask ourselves the question, “Do you think God ever has to be patient with us?” Peter wrote, “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish” (2 Peter 3:9). There is hope!
I pass through trials all the way, with sin and ills contending;
In patience I must bear each day the cross of God’s own sending.
Oft in adversity I know not where to flee; when storms of woe my soul dismay,
I pass through trials all the way.
(from “I Walk in Danger All the Way”)
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