1Corinthians 13: 1 - 7
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,a but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Reflection
I have been wondering a lot about patience lately. I suppose that could be because I sometimes find it difficult to have right now. I have found that lately my patience has been lacking, and anyone who drives with me will know how short my patience really is, as there is no shortage of outrage while I drive. It is almost ironic that I have so little patience when I am usually heading to my work, in the church, what is that song, “isn’t it ironic, don’t ya think?”
It has led me to think about, which is one of my favourite movies even if it is a bit silly, Evan Almighty. In the movie Evan has been instructed by God, Morgan Freeman, to build an ark. Well Evan begins to build this ark and as he does it causes problems with his family. Eventually his wife takes their sons and heads to her parents. On the way they stop at a restaurant where she has an encounter with God, Morgan Freeman. During this encounter God says something to her that I will always remember;
“Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous?”
This particular line in this movie has allowed me to see patience in a slightly different way. We hear in 1Corinthians, which many of us know, that love is patient and love is kind, but I don’t believe that that means that when we pray, or ask God, for patience it is something that is magically given to us. I have come to see that patience is something that we need to cultivate in our lives. I believe that patience is something that we are called to practice every day in our lives. We are called to understand that love is patient, which means in love we are called, sometimes challenged, to cultivate and practice patience in our lives. I think that this might be especially important at this time. We have lived through a year of unprecedented time. We have been challenged in ways that we have never imagined and as such it has been difficult in so many ways. I think that this is the time when we might challenge ourselves to be more mindful of how we have been interacting with those around us. Are we cultivating patience, with ourselves and others? Saint Frances de Sales was known to have said, “Have patience with all things, But, first of all with yourself.” Sometimes that is one of the most difficult things that we can do, have patience with ourselves. To understand that we might not be able to do, get, understand, whatever it is right away and to be okay with that fact.
We are living in a very difficult time, for all of us. We have been braving many storms in our lives, both individually and collectively, but I wonder how we look at these storms, Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho has said, “I have seen many storms in my life. Most storms have caught me by surprise, so I had to learn very quickly to look further and understand that I am not capable of controlling the weather, to exercise the art of patience and to respect the fury of nature.” Although speaking of nature, we can also use the same wisdom when looking at the storms in our lives, to understand that we are not able to control everything and sometimes we need patience to make our way through what is happening. I wonder if we are we allowing the time that we have been living through to impact us in such a way that we have not been patient with ourselves and others? To live in the love of God is to live into practicing love, patience, acceptance, and compassion in the midst of these challenging times. As much as I sometimes wish that I could just pray “patience now!” and patience would be given to me, by learning to cultivate and practice patience in my life I learn how I can be patient at those times when it is really needed in my life.
Prayer
God of love, help us to recognize those times in our lives when we need to practice patience. Give us the wisdom to know when we are called to be patient with ourselves and with others. Give us the courage to face this time in a loving manner, knowing that in love we find you. Give us the strength to work to cultivate patience with ourselves and with others. We ask this in the name of Love Incarnate, the one who was a living example of your love, your son Jesus. Amen.
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