Liz Schauer

Patience – often painted as a virtue,

Honorable and rare.

For the spiritual,

It is a by-product of the Spirit within,

An element of long-suffering;

Of staying true in the wake of adverse circumstance.

 

Patience – begging to be thought of as more,

Not merely an ethic or a fruit,

Not just equated as an element of enduring.

It is centered on trust.

 

Moments when anxiety and questions of uncertainty overwhelm –

Do you trust that God is in control?

Moments when hands fidget with the future held in them –

Do you trust that God has a plan?

Moments between what we want to do and what we should do, when none of those ‘do’s should be done –

Do you trust that God is good?

 

Seconds are hours when self-control starts to slip,

Deep breaths and waiting,

Open hands and minds racing.

The minutes eventually do turn to hours,

Marking milestones usually referred to as days,

Growing faith in the weeks that are the wake of forced patience.

 

When spirits scream and minds meltdown,

The choice is hard, but good.

Small seconds of deep breaths interlace,

Holding off stress and unease,

Weaving themselves into a tapestry of times

Where I won’t becomes I will,

Where I can’t becomes I can,

Where I don’t becomes I do,

Where confidence is grown and the next step is still unknown

But peace becomes commonplace

Because the will, can, and do are infinitely better

Directed by the hands that know what is to come

Than the ones who have been left undone.