Run With Patience
The sermon emphasizes the importance of developing patience in our daily lives by serving others and doing our daily tasks, even in the midst of grief or sorrow.
Charles E. Cowman preaches on the challenging concept of running with patience, highlighting the strength required to continue moving forward despite deep anguish or sorrow. He emphasizes the Christlike quality of working and serving others even in the midst of personal struggles, drawing inspiration from the example of Jesus. Cowman encourages the congregation to find strength in active service and contributing to the joy of others, reflecting on the idea that true patience is demonstrated through daily tasks and interactions.
Text
"Let us run with patience" (Heb. 12:1).
O run with patience is a very difficult thing. Running is apt to suggest the absence of patience, the eagerness to reach the goal. We commonly associate patience with lying down. We think of it as the angel that guards the couch of the invalid. Yet, I do not think the invalid's patience the hardest to achieve.
There is a patience which I believe to be harder--the patience that can run. To lie down in the time of grief, to be quiet under the stroke of adverse fortune, implies a great strength; but I know of something that implies a strength greater still: It is the power to work under a stroke; to have a great weight at your heart and still to run; to have a deep anguish in your spirit and still perform the daily task. It is a Christlike thing!
Many of us would nurse our grief without crying if we were allowed to nurse it. The hard thing is that most of us are called to exercise our patience, not in bed, but in the street. We are called to bury our sorrows, not in lethargic quiescence, but in active service--in the exchange, in the workshop, in the hour of social intercourse, in the contribution to another's joy. There is no burial of sorrow so difficult as that; it is the "running with patience."
This was Thy patience, O Son of man! It was at once a waiting and a running--a waiting for the goal, and a doing of the lesser work meantime. I see Thee at Cana turning the water into wine lest the marriage feast should be clouded. I see Thee in the desert feeding a multitude with bread just to relieve a temporary want. All, all the time, Thou wert bearing a mighty grief, unshared, unspoken. Men ask for a rainbow in the cloud; but I would ask more from Thee. I would be, in my cloud, myself a rainbow--a minister to others' joy. My patience will be perfect when it can work in the vineyard. --George Matheson
"When all our hopes are gone,
'Tis well our hands must keep toiling on
For others' sake:
For strength to bear is found in duty done;
And he is best indeed who learns to make
The joy of others cure his own heartache."
Sermon Outline
- The Difficulty of Running with Patience
- The Christlike Example of Running with Patience
- The Burial of Sorrow through Active Service
- We must bury our sorrows in active service, not lethargy
- Our patience will be perfect when it can work in the vineyard
Key Quotes
“When all our hopes are gone, ''Tis well our hands must keep toiling on For others'' sake: For strength to bear is found in duty done; And he is best indeed who learns to make The joy of others cure his own heartache.” — Charles E. Cowman
Application Points
- We must focus on serving others and doing our daily tasks, even when it's difficult, to develop patience in our lives.
- Our patience will be perfect when it can work in the vineyard, serving others and doing our daily tasks.
- We can find strength to bear our own heartache by focusing on serving others and doing our daily tasks.