Longsuffering & The Long Lost Art of Waiting Well
by Emma Cockley
I recently had the privilege of teaching a session for Women Business Leaders’ Summer Series. Because the Summer Series focus is on the Fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5, my lesson dealt with the two virtues of patience and kindness. Below is a short excerpt from my lesson that provides greater understanding upon what it means to be a Christian who practices patience, both in the form of longsuffering with others and in the form of waiting.
This blog is part one of a series of essays that will be developed from my initial lecture, exploring the themes and applications of patience and kindness.
What does it mean to be patient? The word for patience in the original Greek of Galatians 5 is makrothumia. It literally means “long anger” or “slow to anger,” describing the conscious, deliberate choice to hold back wrath and maintain self-control when provoked or wronged. Generally speaking, the word’s usage here refers to patience in regards to people. Patience in this form describes a person who is slow to wrath, slow to anger, and is long-suffering with people.
The most illuminating thing about this word is that it is very commonly used in the New Testament to describe the attitude of God and of Jesus towards mankind. Paul uses this same word in Romans 2 when he describes God’s patience with a world that has rejected Him,
“Or do you think lightly of the riches of God’s kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” Romans 2:4
Elsewhere Paul describes God’s long suffering with those who have stubbornly rejected Him when he writes,
“God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?” Romans 9:22
Peter in his second letter to a group of believers in Asia Minor writes,
“But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come …” 2 Peter 3:8-10
In the Old Testament, God’s patience is demonstrated time and time again as Israel continues to reject Him, rejecting His goodness and bountiful provision for them while flirting with other false gods instead. David cries out in the Psalm 86, writing of God’s enduring nature saying,
“But You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness.” Psalm 86:15
If we were God- or at least, if I were God- I would have wiped out this world long ago, but God has that patience which bears with all our sinning and He will not cast us off. He is the Most Patient One. In our lives, in our attitude to and dealings with fellow men and women, we are called to reproduce this loving, forbearing, forgiving, patient attitude of God towards ourselves.
And while I think the admonition for us to have a spirit of patience in this passage refers primarily to exhibiting long-suffering with those around us, I think another aspect of patience, though, is the long lost art of waiting well.
Waiting is hard. We wait in lines, for laundry cycles to end, for wet shoes to dry, for water to boil, for a promotion to be given, for exercise to make a difference, for Christmas morning to arrive, for a long list child to return to Christ, for the rain to pass, or for people to change. We wait for the next episode to be released, for the man to pursue, for the news to air, or for the elevator to arrive. We wait for the birth of our child, our next birthday, or for friends to like our latest social media post. We wait…and wait and wait…to the point where one might be tempted to ask, “Is life just a series of waiting periods?”
We hate to wait, it is infuriating because it forces us to recognize that we are finite, terribly and wonderfully human. While we work to eliminate waiting and pride ourselves on the inventions and communication mediums that have alleviated huge waiting periods, no one can successfully remove humanity from our flesh and bone.
We enjoy less waiting and rejoice that emergency room waits can be reduced and phone calls can be made across the ocean, but we lament the alleviation of waiting in so many other areas. Fewer wait patiently for the joy of sex after marriage, fewer wait to see what God’s plans are before jumping into their own, fewer wait to process the journey because the plane arrives in a meager seven hours, fewer wait to grow up slowly engaging in violent and inappropriate content at a young age, fewer wait to be pursued before they scheme, and fewer wait in silence and solitude in order to hear from God.
Waiting- or patience- is not about counting the minutes till we receive what we want, waiting is about learning to trust our hearts to Christ’s good and generous hand. It is to believe that what we want is not the end of life, but a means in which Jesus works and resides. Waiting is often a lot in which we learn the most important lessons of life from the One who waits with us.
Have you ever thought about how Jesus Himself is waiting patiently? He has been waiting for thousands of years to return and establish His Kingdom, yet He waits patiently that none should perish. Jesus has been and is in a season of waiting and what He longs for will come to pass…but His waiting is far greater than ours. He waits for us. He waits for all those who will believe through us. He waits to embrace us, to welcome us home. He waits expectantly. He waits patiently. He submits to the Father’s timing, as He watches the pain, horror, and loss of humanity’s depravity unfold in, around, and towards His people. Jesus waits. But Jesus does not simply wait at the Father’s right hand for the nations to become His footstool, He waits within each of us, with us. He is Immanuel—God with us.
This means Jesus is with us as we wait…in lines, in hospitals, in grocery stores, in heartbreak, in longings, in pain, in uncertainty, in disappointment, in hope. Jesus waits with us and for us. His willingness to perfectly submit to our Heavenly Father and wait on His timing while He lived incarnate-ly on earth and now as He intercedes seated by the Father for us. Because we are in Jesus, we are one with Him, so too we can submit to our Father’s timing and wait well.
Nothing is wasted. Waiting is not wasted life; waiting is where life happens. Waiting is not a season where God is absent or is unable to be glorified. Waiting and learning to be patient is where God is glorified and where God is present. The best parts of life on earth require great waiting periods. And the best, eternal, richest, and most satisfying reality requires that Christ-followers wait… Waiting patiently for Christ to come again, when all things will be made right! So I hope you can see the great beauty and joy that can be had in learning patience in these seasons of waiting and the goodness of a God who is waiting with you.