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A daily Lenten e-mail with lessons of hope and courage, inspired by a variety of resources to encourage us in these confusing and turbulent times from St. Luke’s Church, Lebanon.

Tuesday - Fourth Week in Lent

Several years ago, I required major surgery to correct intolerable pain. The intervention was successful but the road to recovery was long and difficult. Hours of physical therapy began to restore my ability to stand upright and to walk again. Gingerly at first, but eventually recovered fully.

In the gospel lesson assigned for this day, we hear about how Jesus cured a man who had been profoundly disabled for thirty-eight years. He could not even move himself to the pool in the temple that many believed promised a healing bath.

Jesus sees the man’s desire for healing. I imagine that his desire to walk again was the dominant desire in his life. Because of this inability, he could not work to provide for himself or his family. He had to rely upon begging and the kindness of strangers. As Jesus came upon him, Jesus didn’t see someone unable to do something but a person who exercised an enormous inner strength – patient endurance.

Patient endurance is also called “long-suffering. Instead of looking for the easy way out when confronted with difficulty, the exercise of patient endurance allows one to “power through” to the other side of difficulty. It removes the temptation to become discouraged or even to give up hope. This singular virtue represents a spiritual strength that has allowed many to triumph in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. The little things that annoy us no longer seem important. In fact, it is the birthing of hope. It is the beginning of immense joy when we eventually move beyond the difficulties we face.

Jesus saw this virtue alive in this man. The force was strong in this one – so strong it moved Jesus deeply. Jesus reached out to heal him, despite the religious rules that forbade such activity on the Sabbath day. In the meeting of these two hearts – the compassionate heart of Jesus and the longsuffering heart of the man at the pool – a tremendous energy emerged. It was an energy powerful enough to bring the man to his feet.

Reflect, today, upon this beautiful virtue of patient endurance. It is too easy to see the trials of life in a negative way that leads to a “woe is me” attitude. Rather, today’s lesson leads to an invitation to exercise patient endurance in all things. Ponder for just a moment how you endure your trials. Is it with deep and ongoing patience, hope and joy? Or is it with anger, bitterness, and despair?

Look into the compassionate eyes of Jesus and pray for this gift and seek to imitate this man.

Scripture Lessons appointed for the day
(Click on the lesson for the text)
Ezekiel 47:1–9,12
John 5:1–18
Psalm 46:1–8

“Sometimes there's not a better way. Sometimes there's only the hard way.”

― Mary E. Pearson

Developing patient endurance . . .

In what area of your life are you struggling to demonstrate patient endurance?

How does your impatience manifest itself:
Anger? Annoyance? Sarcasm? Judgment? Discontentment?

What’s the underlying reason for your impatience:
Pride? Control? Comfort? Fear? Selfishness? Distrust?

Patience, People
John Foley

Performed by Chris Brunelle

“A waiting person is a patient person. The word patience means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen