To Be Patient Is to Be Free

Last updated on: August 17, 2015 at 8:00 am by K. Mulhern

To Be Patient Is to Be Free 2015-08-10T14:22:24-06:00 K. Mulhern

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Everett Collection / Shutterstock

For many who have come from a middle-class American Evangelical background with solid, godly roots, there is a certain rightness to life that cannot be denied. This rightness includes a mélange of middle-class American values and Evangelical values, and it’s pretty hard to slice them down the middle. They coinhere. Many of us are kind of stuck in puritan mode—the small-p, pinched-face sort, not the good kind.

These values are fairly tidy and can lead to a fairly tidy life—if, of course, you a) have the social, financial, and familial capital to uphold them, and b) you practice them religiously. (No pun there.) To be an Evangelical includes (in no particular order): responsibility, hard work, godliness, chastity, sobriety, an appreciation for education, self-sacrifice, regular church attendance, some personal devotional life, and a measure of frugality (within comfortable limits, of course). (The Bebbington Quadilateral is a better theological summary, but you know these are the virtues we applaud.)

These aren’t ingredients in a recipe per se or a formula for success—bad things happen to good people, obviously—but they often serve as “markers” for a prescribed life. Those who embrace this tidiness may look at the world with an eyebrow cocked and a certain furrow between brows and wonder “what on earth.” People, people, people! Bad choices, bad habits, bad relationships. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

And when we are not shaking heads with dismay, we’re trying to squeeze people into the same tidy mold. Children, neighbors, co-workers; politics, churches, schools; the poor, the rich, the foreigner. We have a prescription for what ails them, but they won’t take our medicine.

We stand on our porches and survey the world like Aunt Bee—generally well-meaning but a little shocked.

As they so often do, the saints correct us, their quiet voices like a background conversation behind the noise of modern spirituality. Hagar, twice cast out into a pitiless future and twice met by God. Francis Thompson, hounded and haunted as he hustled away from God until he could run no further. And Augustine—yes, some bad choices, some bad theology, and considerable resistance to the claims of God on his life until God wore him down. These stories, and so many like them, turn on that moment of surprise when the sinner/saint realizes that he or she is not—and has not ever been—alone. God’s hand was present in all the events of their lives. God gave them the freedom to take paths of their own choosing and yet managed to place himself at the end of every path.

Sometimes it just seems to me that American Evangelicals are not very free. They are bound up in their own sense of rightness, twisted in knots with anxiety about the wellbeing of others, and harried by an excessive fear of the consequences of bad choices.

Of course this is no excuse for a devil-may-care attitude; there are endless reasons for lament, endless calls to intercessory prayer, endless opportunities for unceasing care. But freedom doesn’t mean recklessness, it means confidence in the God whose eye sees all and whose plan is to gather all.

We can be patient—with ourselves and with others, and even with God.

Previous Post

August 10, 2015

As the 2016 Election Cycle Begins, an Anti-Sneering Pledge

Next Post

August 24, 2015 Examining the Call of Women to Christian Leadership

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Ascetical Theology Book Reviews Children and Parenting Easter Epiphany Friends of God Lent Life in the Spirit Ludolph Pascalian Spirituality: a series Politics Prayers Six Neo-Christian Myths Spiritual Formation Tales from My Father Trinitarian Spirituality: a series Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 July 2024 June 2024 December 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 January 2023 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 April 2022 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 October 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 November 2016 June 2016 April 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 March 2015 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 October 2011 August 2011 July 2011 February 2011 October 2010 September 2010 July 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 November 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does "Redeemer" mean?

Select your answer to see how you score.

One who buys back One who judges One who conquers One who gives