As a physician, impatience sneaks up on me easily. I want test results faster, healing sooner, answers now. I want traffic lights to change more quickly and lines to move along. I want suffering to end on my timetable. But almost every day at Church Health, people teach me something different. Patience, I'm learning, isn't just a virtue, it's a form of love. It's love that sits quietly with uncertainty, love that listens without interrupting.
So many people practice patience whether they want to or not, waiting for healing, for stability, for a break that hasn't come yet. Their patience isn't passive, it's courageous. I'm beginning to see that impatience often comes from believing that my time matters more than someone else's. Patience reminds me that it doesn't. In a city like Memphis where waiting is a daily reality for many, patience may be one of the most loving things we can offer each other, and maybe the hard work for me and for all of us is not to master patience, but to let patience soften us into love. This is Dr. Scott Morris for Church Health.
