In Its Own Time

25 Jul

“You can only have bliss if you don’t chase it.”  ~ Henepola Gunaratana

One of the very first adages I remember learning when I was young?  “A watched pot never boils.”  If I had a nickle every time I heard my mother say that to one of her four boys, I would be able to pay someone else to write these daily reflections for me.  Of course, she had to say it so many times because we never listened.  We were always too busy hurriedly anticipating instead of becoming patient.

But, it is true.  It does nothing to wait impatiently for something to happen.  Everything has its own time and its own space.  Nothing happens until it is ready to do so.  That is the simplest, yet greatest, mystery of life that we need to embrace.  We could make ourselves agitated, it will do no good.  We could pester others, it will do no good.  We could get downright nasty, it will do no good.  We cannot make something come about if it is not ready to come about.

God has His own time as well.  That is something else that we have probably heard a million times throughout our lives.  That is one of the hardest spiritual lessons to learn.  We cannot force God to act.  We have to learn to wait on Him.  That grates against our very nature.  We like to be served.  We like to be in control.  We do not like having to wait for others.  Waiting for God to act in our lives is often quite unbearable.

That is one of the reasons some people leave the practice of the faith.  They think that God is toying with them or that God does not care about them because God does not do what they want when they want it.  Instead, they often chase after other things that will give them what they want.  If they are lucky, they will learn in time that is the worst thing we can do.  Going after the wrong things can destroy us.

Make sure that you are not chasing after the wrong things.

FAITH ACTION:  Make no demands on God today.  Instead, ask God for the patience that you need in order to be a true disciple of His Son.