Dear friend,
How many times have you heard that saying, “Patience is a virtue”?
More than once, I’d bet. Maybe you took it seriously (it sounds like it could have come from the Bible, right?), or maybe not. After all, it’s just a saying, right?
I remember the first time I heard it was from Ma Ingalls while reading the Little House on the Prairie books when I was young.
It seems like a straightforward saying, but what does it mean? Patience with what (or who)? And what does it have to do with creativity?
Define “Patience”
The phrase, “Patience is a virtue” isn’t in the Bible. What is in the Bible, is an adjective frequently associated with God. Patience is even one of the qualities that comes from having God’s Spirit in our lives (Galatians 5:22). The word for patience in the original Greek means patience, endurance, constancy, steadfastness, or perseverance. And the original Hebrew word for patience means long [suffering], patient, or slow (especially when it comes to getting angry).
I’m a bit of a horse girl. So when I read those definitions, I pictured a draft horse pulling an old-fashioned plough. The horse plods along through a field, calmly doing the work it’s master has given it to do. It happily lets children climb all over it, and doesn’t get upset when they pull on it’s mane or tail. And it doesn’t get angry at itself when the work it’s given requires a lot of its strength. It simply gives its best.
Patiently Creative
God’s been talking to me about slowness and patience over the course of the past few months.
The Bible frequently describes God as “slow to anger and abounding in love.” I have yet to find a verse that describes God as “quick” to anything. We’re supposed to become more like God, so why is everyone caught up in moving at breakneck speed?
I’m a slow-moving person, much to my (and everyone else’s) chagrin. I struggle to do things quickly. Sometimes it makes me better at things, and sometimes it makes me fail at things, but it’s far easier to see the ways it makes me fail. It wasn’t until I was talking with a friend that I realized, God made me this way for a reason. He made me a slow-moving person. It helps me be patient with others. It helps me see the things God is doing slowly. The only thing it didn’t help me with was being patient with myself.
Here’s where I’m going with this:
It takes time to get better at something. You can’t hurry your way into success. Like my horse illustration, God wants us to patiently and consantly do the work he’s given us. Even creative work.
Sincerely,
R. J. Catlin
Great article! Very eloquent.
Thanks, Sarah!