Patience Is a Virtue... Learn it!

“God’s rod of mercy is always in His hands outstretched; His sword of justice is in its scabbard, held down by that pierced hand of love that bled for the sins of men.” – C.H. Spurgeon

My dad was a man of many sayings, but one of them was definitely his favorite. “Patience is a virtue… learn it,” he would tell my siblings and me over and over again. Ironically, my dad was one of the most impatient men I ever knew, so I guess he wanted his six kids to learn from his mistakes.

Guess what? I didn’t… at least not as far as patience is concerned.

Growing up in New Jersey where life’s pace is fast and furious, I learned at an early age to produce results lest I fall behind my peers. And so, I studied hard to get good grades and I outhustled every other boy on my various sports teams. As a result, I graduated 6th in my high school class of 600 and started ahead of far more talented players in both baseball and soccer.

That same impatient trait followed me into business and ministry, where I always wanted things done not today or tomorrow, but “a week ago Tuesday.” Once again, that hustle and bustle mentality produced results, but some of them weren’t always godly and sometimes, I unintentionally hurt other people in the process.

Now, in my middle 60s, I think I am finally learning to “let go and let God” a little more. Maybe that is one of the reasons why God had our family relocate to Florida in 2011, where the pace is much less frenetic than in New Jersey. It may also be why He allowed me to contract a near-fatal case of Covid in 2021. As a result of that illness, I have been forced to slow down in some areas and to lean more heavily on God’s strength than my own.

Thankfully, throughout my life, God has demonstrated a lot more patience than me. He waited patiently for me to trust Him as Savior at age 17, and then to make Him Lord of my life at age 22, and then to fully surrender everything to Him at age 27. Those five-year increments between salvation and full surrender demonstrate the depth of my pride and stubbornness… as well as the breadth of His love, mercy, grace, compassion and yes, patience.

As Charles Spurgeon so eloquently put it: “If God were less divine than He is, He would long have since sent forth the whole of His thunders and emptied the cannons of heaven; He would have long ago blasted the earth with the wondrous fires of its lower regions, and man would have been utterly destroyed.”

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President