Active Vs. Passive Patience
Patience is the quality that makes a man able, not simply to suffer things but to vanquish them. William Barclay
If you’re running a 26-mile marathon, remember that every mile is run one step at a time. If you are writing a book, do it one page at a time.
If you’re trying to master a new language, try it one word at a time. There are 365 days in the average year. Divide any project by 365 and you’ll find that no job is all that intimidating. Charles Swindoll
Although the word ‘patience’ suggests a state where you are sitting around waiting for something to happen, God’s version of it demands a more active role.
For example, if you lose your job, should you sit patiently at home in front of the TV waiting for the perfect job to fall in your lap? Or do you need to seek out new opportunities?
Read and Learn More How Leaders Can Cultivate Patience in an Impatient World ?
If you are sick, do you shut off all access to doctors or other medical assistance, or do you try whatever it takes to get better?
Passive patience does little more than consume time. A good comparison may be a prisoner of war, waiting to be rescued. We are often captivated into believing that there is little that we can or should do than wait around for things to change.
Even a prisoner of war can do something. I love the story that James Ray tells about the six years he was a POW during the Vietnam War.
During this time, the prisoners whispered Bible verses back and forth, an act that became vital to their daily existence. There wasn’t much they could do, but the prisoners did what they could, and the shared verses became constant assurances of God’s love and care.
Active patience, then, is to wait without complaint, but always aiming for victory. That’s why you find it described in the Bible as a race – where you never become hopeless, or even just try to hold your own.
No, the goal with active patience is to make actual progress toward the objective every day.
…let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing:
Remember Joseph who we met earlier? Well, he learned a lot of his patience from his father, Jacob, who had his share of trials to endure. Jacob was the twin brother of Isaac, the son of Abraham.
Jacob did a foolish thing and got his brother, Esau, mad at him, and so Jacob chose to escape his homeland to let things cool off. All that is a tale that could consume a whole different book, but our story begins with a well in the land of Haran.
Jacob had escaped home and headed toward Mom and Dad’s ancestral home. While resting by the well, Jacob fell head over heels in love with his cousin, Rachel (which was perfectly acceptable back in Jacob’s day).
He spent a month with Rachel and her relatives, before asking Rachel’s dad, Laban, if they could get married.
I know what you are thinking. Waiting a month to get married doesn’t sound very patient to me, either. When it comes to MY daughter, I plan on making the guy wait at least a couple of decades to make sure he is the right one for her!
And maybe Laban had that in mind when he told Jacob he could marry Rachel in seven years.
The truth is, Laban was one crafty dude, and he had discovered that Jacob was an excellent shepherd. The herds thrived under his care, and Laban tied up his obedience for seven years by making Jacob work for Rachel.
For Jacob, a man smitten, the seven years flew by, and it was soon time to marry the woman he loved. But alas, Laban pulled a fast one on Jacob and switched sisters at the wedding. The result: Jacob ended up marrying Leah, Rachel’s older sister instead.
Honestly, modern me can’t figure out how this happened. I have seen some full wedding dresses in my day, but even if they hid Leah’s identity during the marriage, how were they able to pull it off on the wedding night? Jacob must have been drunk that day is all I can say!
At any rate, the ruse worked, and Jacob woke up married to Leah, not Rachel. Jacob’s only alternative, according to Laban, was to stay and work for him another seven years to pay for Rachel as well.
Oh, don’t worry, Laban did have a heart. Jacob and Rachel married right away, and Jacob paid off his debt in arrears. Laban was surely one crafty fellow!
So Jacob worked obediently with Laban’s herds over the next seven years, and they grew and flourished. As did Jacob’s family. Leah, a baby-making machine, entered into a not-so-silent war with Rachel over who could produce the best offspring.
When the competition got ferocious, they had Jacob sleep with their maids too. Frankly, I have no clue how Jacob had any time to work with the herds of sheep. He was too busy producing 13 kids over the next seven years (one of which was Joseph of the many dreams).
When Jacob’s seven years of servitude were up, he was ready to leave. While Jacob had worked for the past fourteen years, he had little to show for it but two wives, two “maids” and thirteen hungry kids, twelve of them boys. He had to make some money!
So what happens? Crafty Laban hires him to work the fields and offers a portion of the flock as pay. Any part of the herd that was spotted or marked could be Jacob’s.
Jacob agreed and immediately started studying cross-breeding techniques. Soon, Jacob’s flocks were growing at a rapid rate. Laban, unhappy with the thought of losing his prize shepherd, changed the terms of his wages ten times over the next six years.
Meanwhile, Jacob worked without complaint through terrible weather, tolerated the theft of his flocks by Laban’s staff, and lost sleep while guarding against further theft and loss.
He managed the feud between his wives and was a father to all those kids. Still, Jacob patiently persevered until the time he and his family were finally able to return to his home.
How was he able to be so patient? Flashback twenty years to a few weeks before Jacob met Rachel at the well. He was traveling toward Haran and stopped to rest for the night. Jacob lay his head on a stone scattered by the road, and fell asleep:
And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground, and it reached all the way to the sky; angels of God were going up and going down on it.
Then God was right before him, saying, “I am God, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. I’m giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants.
Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they’ll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants.
Yes. I’ll stay with you; I’ll protect you wherever you go, and I’ll bring you back to this very ground. I’ll stick with you until I’ve done everything I promised you.”
Jacob woke up from his sleep. He said, “God is in this place—truly. And I didn’t even know it!” He was terrified. He whispered in awe, “Incredible. Wonderful. Holy. This is God’s House. This is the Gate of Heaven.”
Jacob was up first thing in the morning. He took the stone he had used for his pillow stood it up as a memorial pillar and poured oil over it. He christened the place Bethel (God’s House). The name of the town had been Luz until then.
Jacob vowed a vow: “If God stands by me and protects me on this journey in which I’m setting out, keeps me in food and clothing, and brings me back in one piece to my father’s house, this God will be my God.
This stone that I have set up as a memorial pillar will mark this as a place where God lives. And everything you give me, I’ll return a tenth to you.”
Jacob could wait patiently for the time he and his family would return home by staying focused on God’s promise to protect Jacob and stick with him through thick and thin. A great reminder for all of us.
But another important lesson Jacob gives us is that while indentured to Laban, he didn’t just sit back and wait for it to be over.
He proactively learned the entire business of sheep herding. Not only did he learn how to manage a herd, but how to handle it in such a way that it flourished and grew.
Jacob learned how to communicate effectively with people, including a father-in-law whose sole aim was to detain him in Haran as long as possible.
He learned the complicated profession of cross-breeding to build his personal flocks in spite of his father-in-law’s deceit. In other words, Jacob was patient but continued to strive toward his end goal of returning home.
It is this type of active patience that will see us through each day that we have to wait. It is an optimistic approach to the day that keeps us moving forward in pursuit of our goals.