It is said that Arthur Ashe led quietly. He was soft-spoken and polite, choosing his words carefully. He often used this quote: Beware the fury of a patient man. Ashe didn’t coin the phrase, John Dryden (1631-1700), an English poet and author did. Most of the explanations I found consider the quote to be about the virtue of taking one’s time – of not reacting rashly. They may be right, but as I read this quote over and over, it strikes me as something more – as something subversive and maybe a little dangerous. Like a good novel or movie that carries you along in anticipation, making you gasp when it is over. Like “The Sixth Sense.”
We see this in life-changing events, like the Civil Rights movement. In school, I learned about Dr. King, Jr. and his companions, but it wasn’t until later in life that I learned about the generations who came before them, chipping away against the evil of enslavement because their lives depended on it. Watching the mini-series “Roots” gave me insight I wasn’t offered in my education; the struggle of Kunte Kinte to keep his real name was moving and meaningful. For all who struggle for justice, fury grows under a surface of, if not serenity, then a facade of neutrality. This fury can be seen in the MAGA movement; those who came before, like Sen. Barry Goldwater, Pres. Reagan and the Tea Party, laid the groundwork for this hyper-conservative movement. They played the long game.
Arthur Ashe was a hero in many ways, one of them being his patient persistence to achieve justice. Ghandi was the same; he led a peaceful revolution against India’s oppressors, and he won. Patience, according to the Apostle Paul, is one of the fruits of the Spirit; it is something that some have naturally while the rest of us have to work at it. It is much easier, and possibly more satisfying, to lash out in reaction to a wrong. Those acts of violence diminish the impact, showing us to be immature and unsteady. Like the phrase, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail; patience is strategic but uses different tools to achieve its end result, because not every problem is a nail. It is a lesson we can learn from Mr. Ashe that might bear better fruit in the future.
Prayer – Teach us patience, Holy God, so that our words might have more impact and our lives might bear more fruit. Amen.
Today’s art is “Perseverance” by Jordan Fetrow.