By Pastor Julie Sanders, Tarkio and Westboro United Methodist Churches

In the book of Hebrews there is a fascinating phrase. The writer says, “… let us run with patience the race that is set before us, our eyes fixed on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith …” There’s an interesting contrast here: run with patience. Did I read that right? Run with patience? How do you do that? Think about it, when we run a race, we don’t want to be held back by anything. The competitor throws off all restraints and eagerly pushes forward to the goal, nothing in the way except a burning passion to finish first. Can one run with patience? Definitely yes! Look at the classic story of the tortoise and the hare. The tortoise won the race because he ran it with patience. The hare did not take the race seriously, was not conditioned for it, was careless and casual about its importance, and had no deep desire to do his best. He lost the race he so easily should have won. The tortoise, slow yet persistent, enduring yet determined, moved unswervingly toward the goal and won his race because he was prepared to achieve. He had the patience and the will to win.

George Matheson wrote, “We commonly associate patience with lying down. We think of it as the angel that guards the couch of the invalid. Yet there is a patience that I believe to be harder – the patience that can run. To lie down in the time of grief, to be quiet under the stroke of adverse fortune, implies a great strength; but I know of something that implies a strength greater still: it is the power to work under stress; to have a great weight at your heart and still run; to have a deep anguish in your spirit and still perform the daily tasks. It is a Christ-like thing! The hardest thing is that most of us are called to exercise our patience, not in the sickbed but in the street.” To wait is hard, to do it with “good courage” is harder!

There comes those moments, days, weeks, and even years when all the pieces of the puzzle do not seem to be present, when a clear course of action appears blurred, the goals slightly out of focus, the closed door not opening, the decisions still indecisive, and the path not ready to clear. And so, we wait. Yet, with waiting, comes discovery. Out of nowhere or maybe from “somewhere” it seems to come across our mind, stimulate our senses, motivate our thought process, and energize us into action. Suddenly the answer is plain. What seemed to be hopelessness was really patience working out its slow wisdom. What looked like time wasted became the most fruitful of all experiences. God is ever more present than we realize and more active in our lives and times than we can possibly imagine. Old doors may close, but new doors have a strange way of swinging silently open. Some call it fate, others call it luck, many call it hard work or self-making. I call it the leading of Our Heavenly Father, the guidance of His Holy Spirit.