December 8th: Patient

Submitted by Rebecca Watson

I received the word “patient” for this Advent devotional while waiting on biopsy results.

I am not a patient person in the best of circumstances, friends. 

But this year, full of waiting and not knowing, not knowing and waiting? My lack of patience has never been more glaring.

But let me back up: What is being patient? I think it’s important to distinguish “patient” from “hopeful.” It seems to me that hope is focused on the future, whereas patience is focused on the present.

I appreciated the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of patient: “bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint.” It doesn’t speak to what you do once you get through the pain or trials. Being patient is not catastrophizing all the possible worst-case-scenarios. But it’s also not skipping ahead and fixating on “when everything is better.” Patience is peaceful presence, right in the midst of the circumstances.

I think of Mary and Joseph, taking their journey to Bethlehem, step by step. Patience is putting one foot in front of the other.

It’s tempting to want to fast-forward through Advent to get to Christmas. Especially this year — I want to skip ahead to when I am done with law school finals, to when we have a vaccine, to when there is tangible justice and equality in this country, to when I have the “all clear” from my doctors. But Advent is an invitation to not skip ahead — to be present in each day as we wait. It is an invitation to wait well.

And as we wait together, I offer this prayer that has encouraged my patience throughout quarantine:

This is another day, O Lord.  I know not what it will bring forth, but make me ready, Lord, for whatever it may be.  If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely.  If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly.  If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently.  And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly. Make these words more than words, and give me the Spirit of Jesus.  Amen.