“Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.”

Pastor Terry, the Pastor of my church, Cornerstone in San Francisco, has been teaching on how to grow through adversity.  He is sharing out of a life experience he had two years ago and his message is hitting home each and every week as we each can recognize adversity that we have faced, are facing, or will face.  It’s a bummer, but just like our businesses there are only three states we can be in – failing, staying steady, or growing.  Only one of the three is acceptable. So, we are going to face a time when the going is going to get really tough and there is only one way to survive and that is to move through the challenge to get to the other side. The key is to be able weather those storms and grow and strengthen at the same time.  If we can learn to do this through our attitude, approach and actions, then we will be better capable of withstanding the next storm or obstacle. One of the take away points that Pastor Terry has taught is that we have to be patient with the process as adverse conditions and situations don’t just disappear or go way overnight.  In fact, sometimes they can drag on for what feels like an eternity and we have no choice but to be patient as things work themselves through.  As I was reflecting on this lesson I realized that in order to truly be patient with the process, we have to let go of the control we would like to have over the process and trust that things will work themselves out.  It was then that I said to myself, “I can’t be patient with the process, unless I let myself become a ‘patient’ of the process’”.  You see, to be a patient, it means to allow our well-being, healing or recovery to be prescribed by someone else and then we have to subordinate our own thoughts and dispositions to those of the one prescribing.  We must become like a good patient if we really want to find true patience.

I know it goes without saying that God is our great physician and healer, but we have to be reminded often of this, because we don’t live our lives as good patients of His.  We ignore the prescriptions.  We don’t listen.  We do just the opposite of what we are told and we don’t regularly take our daily doses.  But, if we can attempt to be better patients in this process called life then God will give us all of His promises and blessings, bringing us closer and closer to Him, which as we know, is the source of our strength.

Reference:  James 5:10 (New Living Translation)