May 28, 2010 1:53 P.M.

Patience.

What does it actually mean? I was blessed to see my friend Tyler today after he returned from Spain and before he made his way to the middle of PA for summer camp counselling. During high school we didn't really know each other but we were brought very close in faith over the past few years. We all have those relationships. One where we know someone but don't truly find them until our lives, fates, and faiths interlock.

It is during our toughest times that faith is truly compassionate. During his visit we got to talking about patience.

What is patience? According to the dictionary, patience means the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like. And in our world a patient person is seen as very reserved and taciturn. We don't expect a patient person to be leading the way for change or revolution.

But patience has another meaning. Maybe in the greatest irony humanly possible, patience means the exact opposite in faith.

In faith, patience is a constant movement, a constant action. In faith, patience is the unending need to become closer with Him and to constantly struggle with what you are comfortable with. Because when we are comfortable we get impatient, we get complacent: two very different ideas, but both very detrimental to our faith. We must have patience in the most deponent way possible. We must use patience as an action. A want to learn and to seek and to find.

Patience in this world urges us to wait and see what happens. But patience in our faith tells us to have a hunger for more, a hunger to constantly fight off complacency while waiting for His plan to come to pass. We never know what path we are on until we get off of it, and we need to fight as hard as possible to always be cognizant of all the paths we embark on. We need to constantly fight the urges to give up and we need to constantly see that hope lies in the arms of the patient. Not the earthly patient, but those who are patient in their faith.

Life is conducive to sitting back and waiting. Faith isn't. You can only make something of your life once and patience in your faith is key.

Patience is hope, faith is patient.

We are faith.

With love,

Hope