I can be rather impatient when it comes to waiting for change especially when the change is out of my control. Waiting for someone else to push the go button exhausts me. I find myself looking up and asking, “Now God?” Okay, sometimes I’m not asking, sometimes I am telling.
Recently, a friend shared with me this proem by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French philosopher and Jesuit priest. It went straight to my heart, and it reminded me that every step of the journey matters. Every step molds me and pushes me to rely more on God. This reminds me, in the midst of wanting it now God, to look around and see how He is working in the midst of my impatience.
Trust in the Slow Work of God
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.
Yet it is the law of all progress that is made
by passing through some stages of instability
and that 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.
Do not 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 you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new Spirit
gradually forming in 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.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God,
our loving vine-dresser. Amen.
As I calm my impatience, and desires to skip intermediate stages, He also speaks to me through this simple verse. I am simply reminded that He has got this.
7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7 NIV).
It is easy to let our wants and desires to take over and then anxiety builds as we have to wait. I am working on staying in the moment, turning off the voice that says, “Now God,” and focusing on what God is doing in my life, today. I must admit this has been hard work. I’m sure I will be reading this poem and verse again and again.
How do you trust in God’s work in your life? Share your experiences here and breathe life and bring hope to others.