Bonhoeffer on Patience

"Suffering produces patience." The Greek word for patience literally means to stay underneath, to endure, to bear rather than to cast off one's burden. Today we in the church know far too little about the unique blessing of enduring and bearing - to bear, not to cast off, to bear, but neither to collapse, to bear as Christ bore the cross, to endure beneath it, and there, underneath, to find Christ. When God imposes a burden, those who are patient bend their heads and believe it is good to be humbled thus - to endure beneath this burden. But to endure beneath it! To remain firm, to remain strong as well - that is what the word means, not anemic, giving in, shrinking back, enamored of suffering - but rather to gain strength under that burden as under God's grace, to preserve Go d's peace with unshakable constancy. God's peace is found among the patient."

- "Treasures of Suffering" from Meditations on the Cross