Cultivating Patience (A Free, At-Home Retreat)

O Lord, grant me the gift of patience.

Right now!

Seriously, I need a big dose of patience these days.

For most of this summer I couldn’t log in to a handful of website apps—ones that I use routinely in service of Backstory Preaching—without needing to select Captcha images first.

I would be forced into scrutinizing and selecting blurry, dark pictures of trucks (Is that image a truck? Or is it a bus? Do they consider a bus a truck?), sometimes ten times a day per app, even when I left the app open. It required countless hours and weeks of tech support before the problem was resolved.

O Lord, help me!

I also struggle to find my patience with those who hold political power when I see them make decisions that are self-serving instead of other-serving, power-grabbing instead of power-sharing, handing more to the rich while grabbing from the poor.

O Lord, help me!

Because many of us are in short supply of patience, it takes more energy than we’ve got to give another the benefit of the doubt, empathize, or have compassion.

Including with ourselves.

I hear from many preachers that they feel like they should know how to lead during these rapidly-changing times. They should know better how to help their parishioners spiritually, how to help them forgive each other, how to de-politicize the actions of loving ones’ neighbors.

In short, it feels like we've got more thorns in our sides than ever.

O Lord, help us!

However much we wish the the thorn in our sides would just go away, wishing will not bring the desired effect.

Moreover, acting out our impatience is only adding thorns to others' sides, increasing their suffering.

We could all use more patience—right now.

From whence is it to come?

This free, at-home retreat is intended to help.

Flexibly designed for your schedule whether you have ninety minutes, three hours, or six, I hope this at-home retreat will help you cultivate patience—however long it takes.