Patience

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The Virtue of Patience

My former boss used to tell me I had the thickest skin of any man he’d ever worked with.
The truth? I don’t. Insults sting just as much as they do for anyone else. What I do have is patience—at least most of the time. Even then, I lose it more often than I’d like to admit.

And the worst part is this: the people who see my impatience the most are usually the people I love. It’s strange how we reserve our roughest edges for the ones who give us the most security. We assume they’ll understand, forgive, and keep loving us—so we let ourselves unravel.
But that’s not the way it should be.

This Christmas, I’ll be on the road instead of home. I’ll spend the day practicing patience among men who, like me, are somewhere they don’t want to be. Men who want to be home with their families, in familiar places, with the people who matter. Instead, we’re here—waiting, frustrated, feeling the weight of distance.
Patience becomes a survival skill.

Life on the Road Teaches Patience

People expect me to be home. Patience.
Coworkers clash. Patience.
Flights get delayed. Patience.
I don’t want to be here. Patience.

There’s nothing I’m facing that others haven’t endured. Patience.
A hotel room feels like a prison cell. Patience.
I wish I could change everything and never repeat this cycle. Patience.

My wife doesn’t call enough. Patience.
When she does call, the timing is terrible. Patience.
People think I should walk away from all of this. Patience.

My personal business is a mess without me there to run it. Patience.
I worry that friends and family are quietly forgetting me while I wait on God. Patience.

Sometimes the only thread connecting me to the life I want is Facebook.
PATIENCE.

It’s not hard to list the ways life forces patience while we wait for God to bring clarity out of confusion.

Christianity Is a Life of Waiting

God doesn’t make Himself empirically provable. Patience.
I wait for heaven. Patience.
I wait for my own sanctification—slow, uneven, humbling. Patience.

I’m called to kindness even when I don’t feel like offering it. Patience.
I look for the blessed Hope. Patience.
I live among people who misunderstand or despise Christianity. Patience.

I watch others misuse the faith and stain its reputation. Patience.
I see spiritual blindness everywhere. Patience.
I don’t like where the world is heading. Patience.
I get mocked for what I believe. Patience.

Waiting is the hardest part of the Christian life. Sometimes we wait an entire lifetime.
Life itself is God’s classroom for teaching patience.

And patience breeds more patience.
I can endure because God endures with me.

Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, reminds us that God has the power to judge instantly, yet He chooses to withhold His hand:

“There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into Hell at any moment… He can most easily do it… Thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to Hell.”

Crowds don’t make us safe. Agreement doesn’t make us right.
The only reason we are here—breathing, waiting, hoping—is because of God’s patience.

Patience for the Holidays, and Beyond

So be patient.
Use it to get through the holidays with joy.
Use it in the quiet moments, in the lonely spaces, in all the places where waiting feels endless.
Use it every single day.

Patience is not weakness.
It is strength, forged in faith, sustained by the God who waits for us.



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