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「....存心忍耐，奔....」（聖經希伯來書十二章 1 節）
「....存心忍耐，奔....」是一件非常困難的事情。「奔」的時候，常是缺乏「忍耐」的時候；因為「奔」的時候，常是急急想達到目的的時候。我們平常說起「忍耐」立刻就聯想到「靜止」：一幕天使守護病榻的圖畫。然而我以為靜止的忍耐，並不是最難作到的忍耐。
我相信有一種忍耐，更難做到，就是那同時能「奔」的忍耐。固然，在悲傷的時候不動，在不幸的時候不言，需要極大的忍耐；可是我知道一件事，需要更大的忍耐：就是在襲擊之下繼續工作，心中負著重壓，仍不停止前「奔」；靈裡深感痛苦，仍然勉力盡職。這才是基督的忍耐！
很多時候，神要我們學習忍耐，不是在安靜睡覺時，乃是在街上走動時。神要我們埋葬我們的悲哀，不是在寂靜中，乃是在活動中」；在貿易中、在工場中、在交際的時候、在幫助別人的時候。沒有一種埋葬比這種埋葬更難；可是這就是所謂「.... 存心忍耐，奔....」。
哦，人子啊，這就是你的忍耐！這就是又等又奔的忍耐！雖然你沒有一刻不背負著極大的憂傷，可是我看見你仍在迦拿變水為酒，在野地變餅濟眾。人們都向你求雲中的虹；我要向你求更大的：求你叫我作一條雲中的虹！一條叫別人喜樂的虹！──馬德勝（Geo. Matheson）
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“Let us run with patience.” (Heb. 12:1.)
To 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 other’ 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.”
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