Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once wrote:
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.
(to read the entire poem, visit IgnatianSpirituality.com)
When I was young, I was not a patient person. If I had an idea, I wanted to act on it. If a gift was coming I wanted it as soon as possible. And I couldn’t possibly see into the future to the time when I could do all the things I knew I wanted to do — meet the perfect girl, graduate from high school, go to college, start a family and career…
But time and faith have shown me over and over, as Robert Frost reminds us, that “way leads on to way.” Our job is to get up every day and pay attention, watching for the directional signs and fellow travelers that God puts into our lives. For inherent in this idea of being patient with God and with our lives is the idea of trust. If we’re going to wait, if we’re going to place our lives and our futures in the hands of someone we cannot see, we have to trust that, in fact, that someone is present in our lives, caring and moving and working in us and through us. God is there pointing the way, if we are quiet and still enough to notice.
Ask yourself in silence: What am I waiting for in my life? Do I trust enough to be patient in God’s “slow work?”
2 comments On Today’s Word: Patience
Trust, how we know this word!
Yet my fickle heart thwarts me all the time. This is my lifelong challenge, and stems from my limited understanding of God’s compassion and mercy. Yes,Terri Mifek reminded me of this.
But my understanding and belief in God’s faithfulness and mercy, became more entrenched in October last year, when I finally understood what ‘trust in God’ entails.
This came in the beautiful “Prayer of Trust” that Bl. John Henry Newman bestowed to us, which was among the ‘Prayers and Blessings’ of Living Faith.
Do allow me to quote his prayer here, Steve!
O Adonai (Sovereign controller), O Ruler of Israel, thou that guidest Joseph like a flock, O Emmanuel, O Sapientia(Wisdom), I give myself to thee. I trust thee wholly.
Thou art wiser than I – more loving to me than I to myself.
Deign to fulfill thy high purposes in me whatever they be – work in and through me.
I am born to serve thee, to be thine, to be thy instrument. Let me be thy blind instrument.
I ask not to see – I ask not to know – I ask simply to be used. Amen.
Steve, knowing this prayer, after discovering it, has brought me immeasurable peace in my life – the peace that only God can give.
Keep it coming Steve, and thanks once again.
Anthony.
Trust can be tough…especially the kind that requires submission…Thanks for sharing Newman’s prayer, Anthony. Beautiful…