DAILY DEVOTIONAL
June 8 — Patience, the slow fruit
A spoken reading of this is being recorded — it will appear here soon.
June 8 — Patience, the Slow Fruit
"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up," — 1 Corinthians 13:4 (KJV)
Paul gives patience the first word in his definition of love. He could have started anywhere. He started here.
We live in a moment that punishes patience. The systems around us promise that we no longer have to wait. The package arrives the same day. The model answers in two seconds. The video buffers in less. Waiting has been treated as a problem to be solved by faster delivery. The Christian tradition treats waiting as a school.
The Bible is patient with the reader. Genesis takes its time. The Psalms repeat themselves. The Gospels say the same thing four times from four angles. Even the Lord's mercy is described in Lamentations as renewed every morning — not all at once, not on demand, but morning by morning, in a rhythm slow enough to require trust.
Patience in a household looks like one parent waiting to answer a child's question until the child finishes it. Patience looks like not interrupting. Patience looks like silence held without filling it. Patience looks like leaving the answer to mature for one more day before posting it.
Patience is the fruit that takes the longest to grow because the soil is our own impatience. The Spirit grows it anyway. The question is whether we will stay in the soil long enough to let Him.
Today, one small practice: when you feel the small itch to refresh, scroll, or reply, count to ten before you do. Most of the time you will not need to do it at all.
"Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass." — Psalm 37:7 (KJV)
May the Lord bless you and keep you.