I’ve been contemplating patience. What is it? When do you need to employ it? It occurred to me that patience is needed when things are not the way you want them to be. If all was as you wanted, patience would not be necessary. On the other hand, if things are not the way you want them to be, you have to wait for change to occur – and be patient in the meantime.
It also seems to me that being patient implies hope. If you have no hope things will be different, you are resigned to the way things are. You have no expectation that they can or will change. Nor could you be patient because there is no hope change will occur. You are just resigned to things as they are.
First Corinthians 13 contains a discourse on love in which the first characteristic of love is patience. (1 Cor. 13.4) Why does love need to be patient if everyone and everything are just as you expect, just as you want them to be? The verse implies that things often are not they way they should be and so you need to be patient in your love as you wait with hope for things to be different. Sometimes the expectation is unrealistic and needs to be changed. Other times, the expectation is realistic and waiting for change is in order.
What will change? Usually we want the circumstances or the other person to change. Frequently, however, it is the one waiting who changes. He or she finds a new way to understand the circumstances or gains insight and perspective on the situation.
Patience is realizing things are not the way you want them and waiting with hope and love until the day when they will be different.