Above All . . .

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 unkown,
something new,
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stage of instability -
And that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you
Your ideas matrue 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 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.

-Margaret B. Guenther, “Seasons in Spiritual Direction” in
Handbook of Spirituality for Ministers, pages. 306-308