That patience is a virtue is a plain truth. But patience does not seem to fit in our impatient culture, in which speed and effectiveness play central roles.

Patience⤒🔗

That often seems to be the same as sitting with your arms crossed on a couch. Patience is passive. That is how it feels at times: powerless, disabled, without the space or opportunity to be busy yourself, when you are ill and lay on your bed, or when people make it very clear to you that your assistance is not needed right now.

Your adolescent son closes the door of his bedroom , and you cannot reach him. A widow assures her congregation members that really, all is fine with her.

By phone you hear in a stressed brother’s voice that a lot is going on in his life, but “No,” he says, “there is no need to drop by.” At those moments you need to practice being patient. Waiting…

Patience then becomes synonymous with doing nothing.

Working hard←⤒🔗

I vividly remember when I was sick once as a little boy, in the middle of the summer. Behind our house was a large property, the land of a farmer. The other members of our family had already left that summer morning to harvest what remained of the peas. For our own use, we were allowed to do this one day after the harvest.

While I saw everyone leave on the horizon that early morning, I had to stay inside and lay on the couch, in front of the window so that I could see what was going on. What a trial that was—to not be allowed to come along but being forced to watch and see what a good time they had with the four of them! I had to be patient till the moment that they would return home again.

Such a passive, wait-and-see attitude is a hard sell in today’s culture.

It is also a question whether this passivity is the Biblical interpretation of patience. James 5:7-8 reads,

Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Be as patient as the farmer who waits for harvest time. The farmer’s patience is not about doing nothing. His patience is to work hard. His sowing, weeding, spreading fertilizer—that is being patient. Patience receives the colour of loyalty, of being persistent, of sticking with it and not to stop. Patience means that, though perhaps you do not see direct results, and perhaps you cannot claim instant success, you still stick with it.

When I was twelve years old, I went during my summer holidays to a farm in the polder and weeded for a few weeks among the beets for the farmer.  Especially the first days, my “harvest” of weeds was small when compared to the results of my older nephew. And when I stretched my sore back for just a minute, I could see the endless rows and rows. How would I ever finish all this? The patience of the farmer is to work hard in the knowledge that success, the moment of harvesting, is still months away.

When as elder, as friend, as fellow Christian, you sometimes find a door that is closed, you may grow in patience by, in due time, without being pushy, knocking on the door some time, or during a chat after church, letting him or her know that you think of them. You cannot force the other person to contact you, but you can continue to invite them.

Fruit←⤒🔗

This patience is truly working hard, especially as the results sometimes are not evident for a long, long time. I really do not know when suddenly a door will open.

This patience is a work of loving fidelity which remains by no means passive. It is not for nothing that God calls patience a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22). It is not a trait which we have received from birth, though some people are much better in it than others.

Christian patience is a matter of praying while you are at work, for in the end you have no say about the harvest. It is not me who decides the final outcome, where and how it is made known. We only ought to be faithful in sowing, weeding, and pest control which can only happen when the Holy Spirit works in my heart, for I am quick to give up.

Patience is  the ability to endure that the Spirit will give to me and teach me to use.

That same patience, as fruit of the Spirit, is and remains focused. It is a waiting for the harvest.

Patience has everything to do with hope, Christian hope: not being fatalistic or passive, but being like a farmer who knows that God, as Lord of creation, allows fruit to ripen.

It is a confidence that is based on something, namely on the firm knowledge and solid trust that God is at work here. You can indeed do much to improve the harvest of your land. But in the end, you must wait and see how big the harvest of your land will be. The final result lies outside of my power.

I do not know how my child, going through puberty, will develop, or how my father really feels, now that he has become a widower. I do not know how things will go further in our congregation, when I am not working in their midst anymore. I do not know what will happen with that one family; will they be fine? I do not even know what in the end I should identify as the harvest, looking back over the past number of years.

But one thing I am very certain about: God is working:

The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. Mark 4:26-29

God’s Spirit works in the hearts of people. In various ways he works on the ripening process. And you and I must patiently weed and pray. Patience is weeding and praying — that is all. That is what the life of a Christian is all about.

Weed, pray, and love

Patience is to do your work faithfully, something whereby I feel that it goes against all demands for quick effectiveness and productivity. Church members want the church council to handle matters quickly and effectively in various situations.

But developing a Christian attitude of being patient means that you, in love, while praying, do what your hand finds to be done. The patience of a church council with a brother or sister who is wandering away — whether it be in matters of marriage or sexuality, or where it concerns the doctrines of the church — is not the same as doing nothing. Colossians 3:12 reads, “Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.”

I hope that also our churches will continue to train themselves in this fruit of God’s Spirit.

When we wait for the Lord of the harvest, we ought to practice being patient.

Weeding, praying, and loving — that is the church of Christ at its core.