“So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with…passionate patience…” 2 Peter 1:5-6 (MSG)

In my personal devotional time I’ve been reading through the New Testament in the Message translation and last week I got stuck for three days on two simple words:  passionate patience.  In 2 Peter 1:5-7 we find a list of characteristics that demonstrate spiritual maturity.  One of those characteristics is usually just translated “patience”, but the Message translation says, “passionate patience”.

Those two words together are hard for me to wrap my mind around, so I looked to the original New Testament language, Greek, for insight.  The Greek work hupomone means, “the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings” (Strong’s Greek & Hebrew Dictionary).  When I read that, it hit me:  it not only takes patience, but also passion to not be swerved from purpose and loyalty during difficulties.

Passionate patience is not just putting up with tough times.  It is not just hunkering down and surviving a storm.  Nor is it ignoring difficult times in blissful ignorance.  Passionate patience is the ability to persevere through difficult times by learning from them, and simultaneously looking with eagerness, expectation, and excitement toward the future when the storms pass.

My modus operandi during hard times has been to hunker down and patiently survive.  I must sadly admit that tough times don’t bring out passion in me.  I am not passionately patient, but now that I know what it is, I’m going to strive for it.