Patient Trust
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ
Are you impatient with the "intermediate stages" of your journey?
I am.
I want to "get there." I want my growth to be finished. I want to be able to measure the distance I've gone and stand proudly upon my achievement.
Yet God seems to take His time. He doesn't rush what He is doing.
God is every bit as involved in the shaping and maturing process--the "in-between"--as He is in the final masterpiece.
Today, let's be patient with our incompleteness. Let's remember that God is with us at each step of the journey. He is for us and He is creating something beautiful in us.
We can trust Him to complete His work...even if it takes a very long time.
Blessings,
Rachel
