Patience is a virtue? Well, it definitely can’t be mine.
I can still recall the excitement of my childhood when my family brought home our first tablet, a little device called the Nook. My mind was constantly glued to that screen. Without the existence of restrictions, I would always look for chances to sneak a few minutes of Minecraft or Clash of Clans. You might argue that it was those moments that fueled my impatience.
Fast forward to now, I recognize that there have been plenty of moments where I have been impatient with those I serve, those I serve with, and even God who called me to serve in the first place. Although I don’t blame society at large for my lack of patience, I do recognize how it molded the tendencies that I have today.
Today, we live in a world of rapid innovation paired with a culture of information overload and instant opinion. It’s overwhelming. And that’s coming from me, a Gen-Z who was born into the greatest decade of instant gratification, bar the one we live in right now. I was raised on Youtube and have my fingers fidgeting with AI. Nonetheless, I say this because although the speed of life feels normal, it also strangely feels unnatural. We might be used to the rapid pace, but the pace is leaving behind discernment and reflection.
So I wonder, what is at risk for the future of the church if young believers are consistently being formed by the world of self-gratification?
It will be its unity.
Picture with me a future where the people who have been repeatedly formed by impatience become pastors, elders, deacons, or leaders. Leaders who have not experienced the formation of the wait will be more prone to view patience as weakness, react emotionally under pressure, and make decisions based on instinct instead of Spirit-dependance. The unity of such a church will become fragile, because slowly but surely, the impatience of a leader has inevitably bled into the community.
So where will the next generation learn the ability to wait?
I believe that Paul gives us the answer.
For Paul, patience is not an option. Patience is woven into the very gospel of Jesus Christ. In his letter to Timothy, Paul reminds Timothy that his power for patience is not in himself, but from Christ’s patience for him. As a blasphemer and persecutor of Christ, Paul had been met with divine mercy instead of divine wrath. Christ displayed his perfect patience to Paul and transformed his life so that he might become a living testimony to others (1 Timothy 1:16). Christ shows the same mercy to us as he did to Paul, and each time he does it, his perfect patience is put on display. Christ is the source of divine patience, intentionally coming into our broken world as a perfect judge, and yet delaying his divine wrath in order to extend mercy on the cross.
Paul, a recipient of divine patience, had now embodied the very patience that transformed his life. Through suffering and endurance, Paul became a picture of God’s patience for others to see, including his spiritual child, Timothy.
In another letter, Paul gives exhortation to Timothy reminding that he had explicitly followed his “patience” himself (2 Timothy 3:10). Timothy, by the power of the Spirit, has walked Paul’s walk and has been able to produce spiritual fruit, including patience. Paul goes on to ask Timothy to continue in what he has learned, and to remember whom he has learned it from (2 Timothy 3:14). Paul, Timothy’s grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice had given Timothy a lived example of how to walk in light of God’s divine patience. And by that same Spirit, Timothy also embodied it and passed on the torch to those that he shepherded. Warned with times of people becoming increasingly selfish, Paul charges Timothy to “preach the word… with all patience and teaching.” (2 Timothy 4:1-5)
This patience, produced by the Spirit and received from Christ, is the pattern passed down through faithful relationships. And this pattern of patience passed through generations is vital to the unity of the church.
When I survey the 23 years of my life, the most vivid and clear witness of patience has come from the people of Christ.
I remember my 3rd grade Sunday school teacher, gently dealing with a passively rebellious boy. I would come into class, pick up the chair, and plop myself in the corner of the room to disengage. One time, after getting myself in trouble, she gave me the gift of candy, while the rest of the class received none. She told me that was what grace felt like. She never scolded me. To this day, I still remember her patience.
I remember my mother enduring the storms of my teenage years. Through all the arguments and battles over electronic use and responsibility, my mother’s patience never wavered. For her, patience didn’t mean being perfect. But it did mean learning to say sorry, asking for forgiveness, and trusting in God’s timing for the struggles of my teenage life.
I remember my Youth Pastor, Pastor Jeremy, for being patient with me when I undermined him. One year in High School, I started a mini-youth group on my own. He could’ve easily crushed me through authority, but he didn’t. His patience through the ups and downs of his own ministry is what I vividly remember till this day.
I remember my ministry supervisors patiently dealing with my stubbornness when I came in storms blazing with a “know it all” mentality. I recall some tough conversations and corrections, where my overseers had to patiently show me grace. Time and time again, I realize that their commitment to consistent patience to me is grace I don’t deserve.
But the most humbling of all might be the friendship of my brother in Christ, Edwin. Edwin has been an unwavering and faithful friend despite our difference in stage of life. As I celebrate my victories, and wrestle with my struggles, he is right there to walk through them with me. His patience in waiting to see what God does in my life gives me confidence to wait for God as well.
So what hope is there for the next generation? What will sustain their faith, their endurance, and their unity as they inherit a world shaped by hurry and impatience?
It is this: The patience of Christ embodied in the lives of his people carried through the generations that faithfully hold true to the gospel. This is how patience finds itself taking root and puts itself on display in each generation for generations to come. This is how the church finds the power, as saints have done again and again before, to counter culture and stand firm in Christ in an ever changing world. Christ will be faithful to preserve the church he died to create by forming generations to receive, embody, and multiply the patience of Christ through a progressively impatient age.
Will you join the others of those who have gone before us to show patience to those coming after us? Can your faithful and active endurance become a testimony for those hungry in the next generation? Perhaps your slow and steady fire of patience might be the example that encourages Gen-Z like myself, and Gen Alpha who might still be in the womb, come to know the patience of Christ. Patience is a virtue, not because we obtain it on our own ability, but because Christ shapes it in us, for the sake of his unity and for his glory.
Header Photo Credit: Imsogabriel