The Fifth Sunday in Lent
Patience’s Sweet Invitation
Reflection By Molly Bosscher
Time is God’s way of keeping everything from happening all at once.
- Anonymous
If Patience were a person, she would always be inviting us to do things. She’d invite us for brownies, for dinner, for a hike, for a weekend in the city, for drinks, a manicure, to play darts, to go hunting, camping, shopping—anything, she's always asking. And best of all, she never demands; she just asks sweetly.
Of course, I say no to most of her invitations. I’m stuck in traffic? I get anxious and then angry. I take my phone out, even though phones are banned while driving, so that I can calm my impatience and “choose” not to gun it when the car next to me tries to pull in front of me.
Or winter in the upper Midwest? It’s another invitation from sweet Patience. But me? I complain again and again, mostly to myself (as people from the Midwest are more hardy than me). I silently nurse my impatience and dream about summer, when I complain about the heat and wait impatiently for humidity to subside.
Or continuing to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in my life? I want all of them all fully manifested now.
My impatience means I’m not paying attention.
She asks for our attention. Patience asks us to be fully present in this very moment. She asks us to forgo the future, to refuse to indulge the nostalgia for the past. Patience asks us to lay aside our troubles, to remember that “who of us by worrying can add one hour to our lives?” Patience asks us to take our time, to be slow, and to be present.
Because when we pay attention, everything changes. Traffic? It becomes an opportunity to transition between work and home, to shed the busy day and leave it behind us. I’ve heard of someone from DC who drove their long commute in silence twice a day. I think we might call that “prayer.”
The winter or even the unbearable heat of summer? It’s a chance to lie low, to read, to sleep, and to live an unhurried life, less bound by consumer capitalism. Patience offers us a space outside the urgent.
Patience invites us to get lost in the wonder of traffic patterns, of the small changes of winter into spring. Patience invites us to pay attention to the small choices we make, paying closer attention to what needs watering and what needs weeding in our lives. She invites us to walk with and not to judge, to listen and not to fix our friends, family, and children. Patience invites us to cultivate slowness on purpose and to evade efficiency as often as we can.
She invites us to accept her invitations as often as we can, as she sweetly and kindly offers us opportunities. Patience, like the season of Lent, invites us to slow down and renew our spiritual lives before rushing ahead to the celebration of Easter. If you’re having a hard time, that doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. Patience knows that some things just take a minute.
Listen To Our Lent Podcast Episodes
We also invite you to listen to the Living Compass Spirituality and Wellness Podcast hosted by Scott Stoner. This is a year-round, weekly podcast; however, during Lent, there will be two new episodes each week to enrich your experience of our Lenten readings on Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit.
You can listen to the podcast on our website by clicking HERE. You can also find this podcast in your favorite podcast listening app (Apple, Google, Spotify, etc.)—just search for Living Compass Spirituality and Wellness