The pursuit of patience

Religion

March 9, 2012

The pursuit of patience

By Stan Layton, Pastor/First Presbyterian of Picayune The Picayune Item Picayune Item Fri Mar 09, 2012, 09:42 AM CST

PICAYUNE — Daniel Okrent and Steve Wulf tell an amusing story about a weak hitting, one-time major league catcher named Moe Berg.

It was a hot Indian Summer day in 1934 and Berg was playing for the Washington Senators. As injuries continued to mount, manager Al Schacht was left with no other option than to call upon Berg to catch.

Earl Whitehill was pitching for the Senators when Doc Cramer came to bat for the A’s (Philadelphia at the time). Cramer would step into the batter’s box, then step out again. Cramer would finally get set, then Whitehill would step off the pitcher’s rubber to massage the ball a bit more.

On and on the routine went, Berg looking more like an angry elevator with each successive round. Finally, Berg calls time and umpire Bill McGowan asks he what he wants. Taking off his catcher’s equipment and laying it piece by piece on home plate, Berg finally turns to McGowan and says, “I’ll return when those two guys decide to play baseball. Right now I’m going to take a shower” (Baseball Anecdotes, 95-6).

Most of us, if we are honest, can at times be a bit more like Berg than Job (Jas. 5:11). Yet, the Bible is clear that patience is a sign of godliness (Eccl. 7:8; Rom 12:12; 1 Cor. 13:4). So patience is obviously to be pursued by all who would be godly.

With whom should we exercise patience? With other human beings, especially when they act sinfully toward us, perhaps even unawares. We must also be patient with God. It is not that God ever sins against us or that his efforts are somehow lacking. It is that we must often wait upon the Lord to show himself good when his intentions may appear otherwise. We often must trust his timetable when it proves slow for our taste.

How do we pursue and attain patience? First, we pray for it. Since we know the acquisition of patience is God’s will for us, we can pray with all confidence that our prayer for patience will be answered (Ps. 37:4). Second, we must meditate upon the providence of God. The great reformer John Calvin states: “… ignorance of providence is the ultimate of all miseries; highest blessedness lies in the knowledge of it” (Institutes of the Christian Religion, vol. 1, 225). The knowledge that God is working all things according to the counsel of his will for the good of his people (Rom. 8:28-30) is a wonderful reminder that impatience is not only arrogant but foolish. Third, we must keep the gospel of grace ever before us. Remembering that Jesus was crucified to pay for our impatience moves us to be patient with others.

The nineteenth century preacher Robert Murray McCheyene was once asked what he considered to be the greatest wonder of the world. He pondered the question for some time and then replied that is was not creation, nor even redemption, but rather “that God goes on bothering with a man like me.” May the patience of God move each of us to greater levels of patience.

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If you had a free venue you could use to present your information not only to local citizens but to visitors, would you use it?

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