PATIENCE – ENDURANCE
There are three qualifications for missionaries: patience, patience, patience.
—J. Hudson Taylor
One moment of patience may ward off a great disaster; one moment of impatience may ruin a whole life.
—Bits & Pieces
No one treated Lincoln with more contempt than did Edwin Stanton, who denounced Lincoln’s policies and called him a “low cunning clown.” Stanton had nicknamed him “the original gorilla” and said that explorer Paul Du Chaillu was a fool to wander about in Africa trying to capture a gorilla when he could have found one so easily in Springfield, Missouri. Lincoln said nothing in reply. In fact, he made Stanton his war minister because Stanton was the best man for the job. He treated him with every courtesy. The years wore on.
The night came when an assassin’s bullet struck down Lincoln in a theater. In a room off to the side where Lincoln’s body was taken, stood Stanton that night. As he looked down on the silent, rugged face of the president, Stanton said through his tears, “There lies the greatest ruler of men the world has ever seen.” The patience of love had conquered in the end.
—Illustrations for Biblical Preaching
In his book Five Musts of the Christian Life, F. B. Meyer told about a conversation he had with several believers in the home of William Wilberforce. As they were talking about the difficulties of living as a Christian, a minister, well advanced in years, arose and confessed that he was somewhat “short-fused.” He recalled a time he was trying to control the students in a Sunday school class who were unusually boisterous. His patience was stretched to the breaking point. In fact, he was just about ready to blow his top when he felt inclined to pray, “Lord, give me Your patience, for mine is giving out.” In a moment, his spirit was calmed. He therefore decided right then to draw on the Lord’s strength in every difficult situation.
One telephone operator turned to another and said, “He’s a patient man. I was flustered and gave him a wrong number four times, and he said so kindly, ‘You gave me the wrong number four times, operator. Try once again.’ I’d like to meet that man.” And the other inquired, “What is his number?” When she was told, she said, “I know him, he’s my pastor.” Then said the other, “I’m going to hear him preach.”
A Quaker farmer had a stubborn mule. Most farmers would get impatient and strike the mule to get them to go. But the Quaker’s religion kept him from that. One day he said to his mule, “Thou knowest I can’t kick or hit thee because of my religion. Thou knowest I must be patient. But what thou don’t knowest is that I can sell thee to an Episcopalian.”
The secret of patience is doing something else in the meantime.
He who can have patience can have what he will.
—Benjamin Franklin
Regardless of how much patience we have, we would prefer never to use any of it.
—James T. O’Brien
Simply wait on Him. So doing, we should be directed, supplied, protected, corrected, and rewarded.
—Vance Havner
Patience is something you admire greatly in the driver behind you, but not in the one ahead of you.
Patience is the necessary ingredient for genius.
PEACE
Sometimes God calms the storm, and sometimes He lets the storm rage and calms His child.
—Donna Wallis
A West Coast doctor took an informal poll among his patients to find out what wish each would make if his wish were granted. The tally was very interesting. Eighty-seven percent said that peace of mind was their paramount goal.
“What is peace?” A little boy answered, “Peace is when you feel all smooth inside.”
On Admiral Perry’s first boat cruise, before he was an admiral, he was scared stiff. He put his arms around the mast for three days. He wouldn’t eat, and he wouldn’t let go. The Scottish captain went out to see him. “Laddie, do you think the ship will sink?” “Yes.” “Why don’t you let go and prove it?”
Perry said later that his most exhilarating experience in life was when he gradually let go inch by inch and stepped back.
A submarine was on patrol during wartime and had to remain submerged overnight. When it resurfaced the next day, a friend on another ship radioed the captain, “How did you fare in that terrible storm last night?” Surprised, the officer exclaimed, “What storm? We didn’t know there was one!”
Although the ocean surface had been whipped into huge waves by high winds, the vessel was not affected because the waters below were calm and tranquil.
R. J. Campbell went to see a lady who was dying in Brighton, England. He found her to be a person of means and education but ignorant of Christ and the plan of salvation. She knew Christ only as a great Teacher but nothing at all of redemption through Him. Her life story was one of sadness, stained with sorrow and sin. In the course of the conversation she sighed and said, “Oh that it were possible for some great strong friend to take my conscience as though it were his own that I may have a little peace!”
Remember the little boy who got into an argument with some boys twice his size? They thought he was crazy when he drew a line in the dirt and dared them to cross over. When they did, the little boy just smiled and said, “Now you’re on my side.”
—Bits & Pieces
In acceptance lieth peace
O my heart be still;
Let thy restless worries cease
And accept His will.
Though this test be not thy choice;
It is His—therefore rejoice.
In His plan there cannot be
Aught to make thee sad:
If this is His choice for Thee,
Take it and be glad.
Make from it some lovely thing
To the glory of Thy King.
Cease from sighs and murmuring,
Sing His loving grace,
This thing means thy furthering
To a wealthy place.
From thy fears He’ll give release,
In acceptance lieth peace.
In 1555 Nicholas Ridley was burned at the stake because of his witness for Christ. On the night before Ridley’s execution, his brother offered to remain with him in the prison chamber to be of assistance and comfort. Nicholas declined the offer and replied that he meant to go to bed and sleep as quietly as ever he did in his life. Because he knew the peace of God, he could rest in the strength of the everlasting arms of his Lord to meet his need.
—Our Daily Bread
On a rough ocean crossing Mr. Jones became terribly seasick. At an especially rough time, a kindly steward patted Jones on the shoulder and said, “I know, sir, that it seems awful. But remember, no man ever died of seasickness.” Mr. Jones lifted his green countenance to the steward’s concerned face and replied, “Man, don’t say that! It’s only the wonderful hope of dying that keeps me alive.”
God did not create hurry.
—Finnish proverb
During World War II in London there was a blitz bombing at night. The people stayed each night in underground protection. But one Christian lady just stayed at home and slept through all the bombing. When asked about it, she said, “Well, my God neither slumbers nor sleeps, and there’s no need for both of us to stay awake!”
In 1873 a successful businessman lost all his material possessions in the great Chicago fire. This did not trouble him too much for he had set his affection on “things above.” However, just a few weeks later, when his wife and children were on board the “Ville du Havre” to visit France, their ship was rammed by an English vessel and sank within two hours, claiming the lives of 226 people. Although his wife survived, all four of their children perished in the icy waters. While en route to Europe to join his wife, the man was given the tragic news and later shown the spot in the mid-Atlantic where the shipwreck occurred. Although heartsick with grief, Mr. Spafford suddenly felt an inrush of supernatural peace and comfort as he looked to the Lord for strength. With tears streaming down his face, he picked up a pen to record his feelings, and from his well-blest heart flowed these thrilling words, “When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, ‘It is well, it is well with my soul!’ ”
The sultan of Brunei, with an estimated fortune of $25 billion, is the richest man in the world. The basic source of his wealth are the rich Serio oil fields in Brunei.
The sultan—educated in Britain—owns the world’s largest palace, a variety of airplanes, fleets of cars, and some of the world’s top hotels, among them the Beverly Hills Hotel in California. He lives a life of opulent luxury. He knows that he is the target of burglars, kidnappers, terrorists, against whom he must be constantly guarded. He owns several private houses and hotels in and around London and makes it a point to move from one to the other without divulging his schedule to more than a few trusted intimates.
What he cannot purchase is what he treasures most—peace of mind.
A Japanese soldier by the name of Oneda had not heard that World War II was over. He continued to fight on a small island in the Philippines. People tried all kinds of ways to let him know that the war was over. They dropped flyers and tried other ways to communicate to him. He said, “I will not stop fighting unless my captain personally tells me to quit.” So they went back to Japan and found his captain and took him to the Philippines to tell the soldier. Then thirty years after the war was over, in 1974, he said, “I will now stop fighting because the last thing my captain told me was to fight to the end.” Someone then asked him, “Has anything good happened to you in these thirty years?” He said, “No, nothing good has happened in these thirty years.”
Nothing good happens when we are fighting and not at peace.
Peace rules the day when Christ rules the heart.
PEOPLE
People need people. Laurie was about three when she requested my aid in getting undressed. I was downstairs and she was upstairs. “You know how to undress yourself,” I reminded her.
“Yes,” she explained, “but sometimes people need people anyway, even if they know how to do things for themselves.”
As I slowly lowered the newspaper, a strong feeling came over me, a mixture of delight, anger, and pride; delight in the realization that what I had just heard had crystallized many stray thoughts on interpersonal behavior; anger because Laurie stated so effortlessly what I had been struggling with for months; and pride because, after all, she is my daughter.
—William C. Schutz
You must live with people to know their problems, and live with God in order to solve them.
—Peter T. Forsyth
PERFECTION
Perfectionists are those who take great pains and give them to others.
There is scarcely anybody who is absolutely good for nothing, and hardly anybody good at everything.
—Philip Chesterfield
The trouble with a lot of us is we each want to be human, but we’re expecting everybody else to be perfect.
Nothing would be done at all if a man waited until he could do it so well that no one would find fault with it.
—John Henry Newman
Michelangelo was once putting what appeared to be the finishing touches on a sculpture when a friend dropped by for a visit. Days later, the friend dropped by again and was surprised to find the artist still working on the same statue.
The statue looked the same to the friend as it had days earlier, so he said, “You haven’t been working on this statue all this time, have you?”
“I have,” said Michelangelo. “I’ve been busy retouching this part and polishing that part; I’ve softened this feature and brought out that muscle; I’ve given more expression to the lips and more energy to that arm.”
“But all those things are so insignificant,” said the friend. “they’re mere trifles.”
“That may be so,” replied Michelangelo, “but trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.”
—Bits & Pieces
PERSECUTION
“That doctor,” said the hypochondriac, “he says there’s nothing wrong with me—he just doesn’t like me personally. He says I have a persecution complex. That’s a lie—he says that only because he hates me.”
The Turks, having tortured and slain the parent of a little Armenian girl before her eyes, turned to the child and said, “Will you renounce your faith in Jesus and live?” She replied, “I will not.” “Then to the dogs!” She was thrown into a kennel of savage and famished dogs and left there. The next morning they came and looked in and saw the little girl on her knees praying and beside her the largest and most savage of all the dogs, snapping at every dog that ventured near, thus protecting the child. The men ran away terrified, crying out, “There is a God here; there is a God here.”
PERSEVERANCE
Day after day Columbus entered these words in the log of the Santa Maria: “This day we sailed on.”
Alexander the Great was asked how he had conquered the world. He replied, “By not wavering.”
If all of this world falls from the truth, I will stand!
—Athanasius, at the Council of Nicea
Eustace, if after my removal anyone should think it worthwhile to write my life, I will give you a criterion. If he gives me credit for being a plodder, he will describe me justly. Anything beyond this will be too much. I can plod.
—William Carey
Shortly after the turn of the century a young man in Missouri enrolled in the State Teachers College in Warrenburg to get an education. He was a poor lad who could not afford to live in town, so he commuted three miles each day by horseback in order to attend classes. He had only one good suit. His coat was too thin. He tried out for the football team and was rejected.
In spite of his obvious pluck and courage, the young student was developing a deep-seated inferiority complex. His mother urged him to do something that would demonstrate his real potential, so he tried public speaking. Unfortunately, he failed at that too. At this stage in his life, everything the young man did ended in failure.
Yet Dale Carnegie kept on and eventually became the best known teacher of public speaking in history. The lad who had failed at speaking became the personal manager of radio’s celebrated newscaster and author Lowell Thomas and developed a course of instruction on “How to Win Friends and Influence People” that made him a millionaire.
—James M. Boice
Two Frogs in Cream
Two frogs fell into a can of cream,
Or so I’ve heard it told;
The sides of the can were shiny and steep,
The cream was deep and cold.
“O what’s the use?” croaked Number One.
“It is fate, no help’s around.
Good-bye my friends! Good-bye sad world!”
And weeping still, he drowned.
But Number Two, of sterner stuff,
Dog-paddled in surprise,
Then while he wiped his creamy face
And dried his creamy eyes,
“I’ll swim awhile, at least,” he said—
Or so I’ve heard it said;
“It really wouldn’t help the world
If one more frog were dead.”
An hour or two he kicked and swam,
Not once he stopped to mutter,
But kicked and kicked and swam and kicked,
Then hopped out, via butter!
—T. C. Hamlet
On March 15, 1915, the British Navy attacked the Turks at the Dardanelles. There was a terrific naval barrage from the guns on the shore. Three ships had been sunk, and finally, at noon, the British Navy withdrew never to take that point during the engagement. What they didn’t know was that the Turks had only sixty seconds of ammunition left and at that very moment were preparing to surrender. Had the British Navy been persistent and continued to press the battle, they would have taken the Dardanelles, split the enemy forces, closed the war years earlier, and saved millions of lives.
Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.
—Louis Pasteur
Heroism consists of hanging on one minute longer.
—Norwegian proverb
William Carey spent over forty years in Burma and India and when asked to explain his astonishing accomplishments, he simply answered, “Perseverance.”
Winston Churchill was asked to give a commencement address. He was introduced, and he stood up and said firmly, “Never quit!” and he sat down. This was probably the shortest commencement address in history.
Although he had only an elementary education, by the time he was in his teens, he could read the Bible in six languages. He later became professor of Oriental Languages at Fort William College in Calcutta and his press at Serampore provided Scriptures in over forty languages and dialects for more than 300 million people.
His name? William Carey, “father of modern missions.”
His secret? He was a plodder.
I hold a doctrine to which I owe much, indeed, but all the little I ever had, namely, that with ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.
—T. F. Baxter
A child once said to his mother, “You never speak ill of any one. I think you would have something good to say of the Devil.”
“Well,” she said, “imitate his perseverance.”
—D. L. Moody
The Romans came to the cliffs of Dover. They first were repulsed and sent back home. When they came again the Saxons were on the cliffs looking down, far outnumbering the Romans. But the Romans landed and, taking all their supplies ashore, turned with one dramatic and decisive event that carried the day. They set fire to their wooden ships and pushed them back out into the English Channel to burn to the waterline and to sink. Then with great resolve they unsheathed their swords and turned to march with forceful resolution into the face of the battle. The Saxons fled. Such persistence, such total commitment was unimaginable. The day was won for the Romans by default.
—Mack R. Douglas