As a catechumen, you have begun training for a race. This long-distance event will be your life as an Orthodox Christian, running toward the fullness of salvation. Run with all your strength to win! Take care not to launch off in a flash at first, but to tire or lose interest later, when the running becomes difficult. Never give up. Be persistent and focused. Stay consistent and unwavering in your commitment to keep running toward the prize. When you have doubts about going on, find encouragement in your teammates, your fellow believers, who run alongside you. Remember that the Saints who in the generations before you have faithfully run the race with single-minded focus and have finished it victoriously, now stand to cheer you on from the stands. Run with energetic endurance and unwavering determination.
As you practice determination, also practice patience. Work hard to bring good health to your soul and to love others, but wait calmly and soberly to see the benefits of your investment.
Patience does not mean sitting around and doing nothing. Patience is active. It means actively waiting in time while enduring whatever situation you encounter with inner prayer, steady faithfulness, and solid trust in God.
Having patience does not mean that difficulties will eventually be resolved as you want or that your prayers will be answered according to your own opinion of what God should do. Patience does not necessarily give you the situation you want, but allows you to endure any situation well for the benefit of your soul. It is easy for you to think you are a patient person when your patience has not been tested. Patience is gained and strengthened by practicing it in times when being patient is difficult and things are not going as you like.
Avoid the trap of worry. If worrying worked, you should probably do more of it, but worry doesn’t work to your benefit. It enslaves you and blurs your thinking. It doesn’t produce anything good in your soul, effectively change other people, or solve external problems. Worry makes you anxious, driving out peace. In this condition, your problem will become the focus of your life. Rather than worrying, patiently trust in God. If you can’t seem to find patience, ask God for help and find strength through the Church.
Grass grows slowly. Little flowers pop up in a field and open up over time. Tiny seeds produce huge, mighty trees with thick branches full of fruit, but all this happens incrementally, too slow to sit and watch. If you practice patience, you will peacefully accept what happens between now and the future, when you grow toward greater health and maturity. If you are living the Way diligently, the time may seem slow, but it is not wasted. Indeed, it is necessary. This is the process of growth.
Read: Philippians 3:12-17; Hebrews 12.1-2; 2 Thessalonians 1:4-5; Philippians 4.4-9; Matthew 6.25-34; Galatians 5.22-23
Text copyright © 2017 by Fr. Symeon D. S. Kees