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經文：「....存心忍耐，奔....」（來12:1） 「....存心忍耐，奔....」是一件非常困難的事；「奔」通常是缺乏「忍耐」的時候；因為「奔」常常是為了急著想要達到目的。其次我們通常說起「忍耐」就會立刻聯想到「靜止」：一幅天使守護病榻的畫面。 然而我以為靜止，並不是最難做到的忍耐；有一種更難的忍耐，就是要同時能「奔」的。雖然，在悲傷的時候不動，在不幸的時候不語，就需要很大的忍耐，可是更難的是在困難重重之下繼續工作；心中承受着重壓，仍然不停地往前「奔」；靈裡深感痛苦，仍然勉強自己盡守職責，這才是基督的忍耐！ 許多時候，神要我們學習忍耐，不是在牀上，乃是在街上。祂要我們埋葬自己的悲哀，不是在寂靜中，乃是在活動中；在買賣時、在工作時、在與人交際時、在幫助人他時。沒有一種埋葬比這種埋葬更難；而這就是所謂的「....存心忍耐，奔....」。 主啊，這就是祢的忍耐，這就是又等又奔的忍耐！雖然祢沒有一刻，不背負著極大的憂傷，可是祢仍在迦拿變水為酒，在曠野擘餅濟眾。人們都向祢求雲中的虹；但是我要向祢求更大的：求祢使我成為那雲中的虹，就是那使人喜樂的虹！--馬德勝 Geo. Matheson 新譯｜荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "Let us run with patience" (Heb. 12:1). O 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 others' joy. My patience will be perfect when it can work in the vineyard. --George Matheson ｜ Mrs. Charles Cowman
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