On the evening of the Christmas Cantata rehearsal I am anticipating my next line.  As one of three narrators I find it a bit amusing that I am the one dubbed to proclaim this particular proclamation. “Come…let us be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.”  I smile because I know that there is at least one person sitting in this audience who knows that the word “patience” is perhaps nonexistent in my world.

This brings me to our Christmas Carol for today,” I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light”,( words Kathleen Thomerson, 1966).

“I’m looking for the coming of Christ.  I want to be with Jesus.  When we have run with patience the race, we shall know the joy of Jesus.”

The phrase that stands out for me is “run with patience the race”.  I totally do not get how “run with patience” happens.  It feels like an oxymoron to me!  So part of me would just like to toss this aside and move on.  But it won’t let me go.

My children have both run marathons.  I have never done that.  I do, however, feel that my stride in ministry has been like running a race…wholeheartedly giving it everything I’ve got.  It’s just that “patience” thing.  Hebrews 12:1 expresses it like this, “We run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.”  The original Greek word for “patience” here is synonymous with cheerful, hopeful, endurance, constance, patient continuance (waiting).  So, thinking about my children and their months of preparation for the marathon, I witness their persistence, their practice, their pace.  They are respectful of the process, knowing they are not yet where they will be.  They believe in what they do not yet fully see.  Ah, such is the belief in this journey of faith in which Jesus will perfect our faith as we wholeheartedly pour ourselves into the race.  And it all happens in God’s perfect timing, not ours.

This photo is of my daughter and her friends who all run together every morning as they prepare for the marathon.  She tells me that the spirit of the team makes all the difference.  They patiently run the race together!  

Now my words as narrator echo in my heart, ” Come…let us be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him”.  I listen then as the choir sings their song, “We are waiting Lord. We are listening Lord.  Patience, give us patience Lord. Give us faith that you hear every prayer.”  Yes!  I watch their faces as they sing.  It is together that we patiently run this race.  I love them so very much!

nk

Pondering…

How do we envision ourselves patiently running the race?

With whom are we running?