Impatient People
Alan Kreider, a seminary professor and early church scholar, once wrote this:
“Patience helps people live in their pressure-filled situation.” – Alan Kreider
I don’t know about you, but I don’t consider myself a very patient person.
I don’t like waiting very long in a dining establishment that says they serve “fast food.” I get annoyed when the light turns from red to green and the person in front of me doesn’t move. I’m frustrated when I have to watch commercials because I’m too cheap to pay for the ads to go away, and the streaming service won’t let me fast forward through them.
I tend to pride myself on doing a lot of things and getting a lot of things done. Few things give me more satisfaction than crossing a lot of things off my to-do list. Who’s with me? I get frustrated when I have to stop or slow down, or wait on others to get things done.
The old country song by Alabama kind of sums it up for me…
I’m in a hurry to get things done
Oh, I rush and rush until life’s no fun
All I really gotta do is live and die
But I’m in a hurry and don’t know why
But my guess is that I’m not the only one! We all live hurried, busied lives.
We live in a fast-paced world. We have too much to do. We have little to no margin in our lives. We don’t know how to slow down. We don’t know how to rest. When we do have a moment of free time, we pick up our phones or turn on a screen. Our brains get little to no reprieve.
10 Symptoms of Hurry Sickness
In his book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, John Mark Comer talks about this idea of “Hurry Sickness.” One definition of hurry sickness goes like this: “A behavior pattern characterized by continual rushing or anxiousness.” How many of us are feeling that today, or know someone who is?
He talks about 10 symptoms of hurry sickness. See if you have any of these symptoms.
- Irritability: You get mad, frustrated, or just annoyed way too easily.
- Hypersensitivity: All it takes is a minor comment to hurt your feelings, a grumpy text to set you off, or a little turn of events to throw you into an emotional funk and ruin your day.
- Restlessness: When you actually do try to slow down and rest, you can’t relax.
- Workaholism (or just nonstop activity): You just don’t know when to stop. Or worse, you can’t stop.
- Emotional numbness: You just don’t have the capacity to feel another’s pain. Or your own pain.
- Out-of-Order Priorities: You feel disconnected from your identity and calling. You’re always getting sucked into the tyranny of the urgent, not the important.
- Lack of Care for your Body: You don’t have time for the basics: eight hours of sleep a night, daily exercise, healthy, home-cooked food, minimal stimulants, margin.
- Escapist Behaviors: When we’re too tired to do what’s actually life giving for our should, we each turn to our distraction of choice: overeating, overdrinking, binge-watching Netflix, browsing social media, surfing the web, looking at porn, etc.
- Slippage of Spiritual Disciplines: When you get over busy, the things that are truly life giving for your soul are the first to go rather than your first go to, such as quiet time in the morning, Scripture, prayer, Sabbath, worship on Sunday, etc.
- Isolation: You feel disconnected from God, others, and your own soul.
How many of those did you identify with?
On any given day, we’re all going to experience some of these things. But when these things begin to characterize our lives, then something may be up, something may be wrong, or something may be missing.
What Made Christians Unique
From the very beginning of the early church, there was something that was so unique to Christians, something so distinctive about their lives, that people who were not Christian, who didn’t know Jesus, took notice and were drawn into their lives and into the church.
In fact, this one practice was so important to the early church that Christian writers, thinkers, theologians, and teachers called it the highest virtue, the greatest of all virtues, and the virtue that was peculiarly Christian. When the early Christians of the first, second, and third centuries lived this virtue out, it drew the attention of outsiders and caused many to come to faith.
James writes about this virtue. It’s also considered a fruit of the Spirit. So this is something that the Holy Spirit of God will cultivate in you when you put your faith in God.
James says this in James 5.7-11:
Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return.
What is the highest virtue, the greatest of all virtues, and the virtue that was peculiarly Christian? It’s patience.
As James prepares to wrap up this letter, he’s been writing to the Christian community of his day some 2000 years ago, he reminds them to be patient.
Maybe someone at some time told you, “Good things come to those who wait.” Maybe you learned the song once upon a time about the fruit of the Spirit, and you learned that “Love, joy, peace, patience…” are all fruit of the Spirit.
But the truth is, you don’t like to wait, you don’t pray for patience because you know what that means… that means God will make you wait. But today I want to invite you to reconsider patience. And here’s why. And my why may surprise you. But here’s why.
Did you know that for the first three centuries of Christianity, the church didn’t do evangelism? At least, not the way we do it today. There were no mission trips. There were no evangelistic sermons. Churches didn’t do a “Bring a Friend Day.” In fact, outsiders weren’t even allowed in Christian worship gatherings. You had to become a Christian before you could come to worship. And becoming a Christian was a multi-year process. It took patience!
But even though the church didn’t do evangelism, they didn’t write about evangelism, they didn’t teach people how to share the gospel with their neighbors, the church grew! It grew slowly but surely over time. What began with 3000 baptized believers on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 grew into an estimated six million Christians by the end of the third century!
You might wonder, how in the world did the church grow if they didn’t send out mission teams and do outreach in their community?
And that’s a great question.
Here’s what Christians believed. They believed that God is patient and Jesus embodied patience. Because of who God is and who Jesus is, they believed that they, trusting in God, should be patient as well. For them, being patient meant that they would not try to control events or outcomes, not be anxious or in a hurry, and never use force to achieve their ends.
The early Christians grew in number not because they won arguments but because their behavior, rooted in patience, was distinctive and intriguing. Their patience demonstrated a resilient reliance on God that drew the attention of outsiders and caused many to come to faith! (Alan Kreider, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church.)
Counter Cultural Patience
Why is it so important for us to reconsider living patient lives? Because the patience of early Christians is what set the church apart, enabled it to grow, and gave Christianity a firm foundation for its witness before a watching world.
Patience was counter-cultural then, and it’s counter-cultural today. When we choose to live patient lives, to wait on God, depend on God, not stress to control outcomes, but pray about everything, in our stressed-out, maxed-out world… people notice.
For the past 2000 years, Christians have been known as people who practice patience. Who wait on God. And who are waiting on God’s return.
James puts it this way…
Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen.
I know we probably have a few people in here who know something about farming, but most of us don’t. Most of us didn’t grow up on a farm where we had to plant our own food, pray for rain, hope it would grow, and then harvest a crop just so we could eat.
The people James was writing to knew exactly what he was talking about.
It takes somewhere between 60-100 days for a seed to turn into a tomato that you can put on your salad or on your hamburger. Most of us, it takes about 30 seconds or less to pick one out at the grocery store and we’re good to go.
It takes between 4-8 months to grow wheat and get it ready for harvest. After the harvest, you have to thresh it, mill it, and then spend several hours turning it into bread. Most us us pick up a loaf of pre-sliced bread once a week and we’re good to go.
We don’t know much about patience when it comes to food and farming. But James encourages us to consider the farmers as a powerful reminder of patience. In the same way the farmer waits for the rain and waits for the harvest, with the same kind of patience, we’re waiting on something that is coming that is far greater than food.
Waiting with Hope, Because of Hope
James says…
8 You, too, must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.
We wait for the coming of the Lord. We are patient. We are courageous. Why? Because we have hope. Our patience is hope-filled! Our life is rooted in HOPE! This is our hope — one day Jesus will return.
This is why patience helps people live as Christians in their pressure-filled situation.
It’s because of our hope. We believe in faith that Jesus came from Heaven to Earth, He lived, He died, He rose again, He ascended to Heaven, where right now, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, the Son of Man, is seated at the right hand of the Father interceding for us, and one day He will return.
When will He return? We don’t know when. If someone tells you the date and time Christ is going to return, that’s a pretty good indicator that it won’t be then because Jesus said that no one knows the day or the hour (Matthew 24:36.).
But He will return. Why is it taking so long? Because God is patient. And His desire is that no one should perish (2 Peter 3:9).
Because of all this, because of our patient hope, James writes…
9 Don’t grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. For look—the Judge is standing at the door!
In other words, you can’t be full of the fruit of the Spirit of patience AND be people who grumble and complain about each other. Those two things don’t go together. It’s like the old game we used to play, One of these things is not like the other.
One of These Things is Not Like the Other
If I showed you these 4 items: Apple – Banana – Carrot – Orange
You know, the one that doesn’t fit is the Carrot (it’s a vegetable, the others are fruits).
If I said, Football – Basketball – Baseball – Monopoly
You know, Monopoly is a board game. The others you play on a field or court with a ball.
If I said, Dog – Cat – Hamster – Dragon
You know, a cat isn’t a real pet! 🙂
For James, grumbling about one another and being people of patience are incompatible. One of these things is not like the other, and he is calling us as Christians to be people of patience. People of patience wait on God. Wait on each other. Give each other the benefit of the doubt. Work things out.
Examples of Patience and Hope
And then James says, if you want examples, think about this…
10 For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
The prophets, many of them preached the word of the Lord faithfully and didn’t see the fruits of their labor while they were still alive. Talk about living lives of patient hope! Some of them even suffered horrible things, but they remained faithful. Why!? Because of their patient hope.
In the same way, James says…
11 We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy.
If you really want an example of patience, remember Job. His story was tragic. He lost everything, including his family, but he never lost his patient hope. And in the end, God rewarded him.
By the way, Job is a good reminder, God is kind to those who hold on to their patient hope.
Are you a person of patient hope?
In his book, Three Mile an Hour God, Kosuke Koyama, a Japanese theologian, reflects on how God works with His people, how he led Israel out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for 40 years before they entered the promised land. He writes…
“I find that God goes slowly in his educational process of man. Forty years in the wilderness points to his educational philosophy.” – Kosuke Koyama
And then he writes…
“The average speed that a human being walks at is three miles per hour. Jesus who is God walks at three miles per hour. Jesus who is God who is love walks at three miles per hour. Love has its speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed. It goes on in the depth of our life, whether we notice it or not, at three miles an hour. It is the speed we walk and therefore the speed the love of God walks.” – Kosuke Koyama
In other words, God is not in a hurry. God is patient. Jesus embodies patience. Jesus was never in a hurry. He always had time. He didn’t have to make time, even though He literally did make time, he never had to make time for people.
So can I encourage you today to slow down? To be and become a person of patience because of the hope we have in Jesus. To allow the Holy Spirit to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit of patience within you. Can I encourage you to pray for patience and to pray that prayer without fear because you want God to transform you more and more into the image of Jesus every day?
If you’re suffering from hurry sickness, I have good news. Jesus is a Healer. And he can heal your sin-sick soul, your hurry-sick soul. He can help you slow down, breathe deep, and rest in His great love. And He can remind you of the patient hope you have because He came and one day He will come again.
Patience helps people live as Christians in their pressure-filled situation.
May we live lives of patience because of the hope we have in Jesus!
Practice Patience
How can you do that this week? I’ll let you decide.
Maybe get in the longest line when you’re at HEB later this week just so you can practice patience. Maybe don’t honk at the car in front of you that forgot to go when the light turned green and just wait patiently. Maybe don’t check text or email until 8AM in the morning, and don’t look at it after 6PM at night, as a way to practice patience.
There are a million ways to practice patience, but the first thing I want to encourage you to do is to pray and ask God to cultivate in you the spiritual fruit of patience. Because when you become more patient, you become more like Jesus.
What if we became patient people? What if we were never in a hurry? What if we never grumbled about each other? What if we had a resilient reliance on God?
I think, if we were able to do that, something interesting might happen. We might see God’s church grow again in the same way it did over the first three centuries. Not because of our evangelistic efforts, but because of our patient hope.
There’s something about living a life of patience and fully relying on God that is so counter-cultural. I think people would take notice just like they did 2000 years ago. And I think people might want what we have. The highest virtue. The greatest of all virtues. The virtue that was peculiarly Christian. Patience.
May we be people of Patient Hope.
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