Patience on steroids

I know patience is a virtue. I’m trying to develop an attitude that is patient, that is satisfied to work for and wait for the good stuff in life. Like paying off my debts, booking lots of concerts, saving up to buy a train pass to backpack through Europe, and on and on. I admit I’m not very patient with myself or with God sometimes.

I know the Bible talks a lot about patience. The King James version also mentions longsuffering, which I like to think of as patience on steroids (see Col. 10-12 or Eph. 4:1-3). I believe longsuffering must be what you earn after fighting something for so long you don’t know what it’s like not to fight anymore. Like years of illness or grief or war. There are not enough bad drivers or annoying cafe patrons in my world to earn me longsuffering.

My great-grandmother, however, did have a longsuffering heart. Her husband, my Papa Fields, was an alcoholic and sixteen years her senior. Mama Fields ran their roadside grocery and did the lion’s share of the child rearing. There were five kids she raised to adulthood, including my grandmother. Then midway through my Mama Fields’ life, as her children were having children of their own, a sixth child, my great-aunt Sharon, was born. She suffered from severe Down’s syndrome and required constant care, which my great-grandmother provided graciously.

Sharon always had a sweet, impish spirit. She loved to laugh with us great-grandkids while sitting in the floor, folding and refolding laundry. She would sit and swing real big on a porch swing while listening to rock n’ roll and rhythm and blues from a radio she held to her ear. She loved music as much as anyone I’ve ever known. She knew that ‘Soul Train’ came on every Saturday night at 10 and she was always inches from the TV when it did. For nearly twenty years after my great-grandfather passed away, and until the day she died, Mama Fields cared for Sharon without complaining. She’d tell you that Sharon was a gift from God, a constant, loving companion.

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us...” -Romans 5:3-5.

I think longsuffering must be like a superpower. If I ever earn longsuffering, I think I’ll wear an L on my chest. But then again, if I endure the trials, gain the character and still have a song in my heart, as my Mama Fields did, I probably won’t care about the cape and the tights.