From the Clerk of Session

Patient Trust in Ourselves and 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.
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 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.

-Pierre Tellhard de Chardin

Author Max Lucado writes, “Why does God wait until the money is gone?” Why does he wait until the sickness has lingered? Why does he choose to wait until the other side of the grave to answer the prayers for healing? I don’t know. I only know his timing is always right. I can only say he will do what is best…Though you hear nothing, he is speaking. Though you see nothing, he is acting. With God there are no accidents. Every incident is intended to bring us closer to him.”

During this “in between time” we are often impatient with ourselves, with each other and with God. God understands our impatience. But God also wants us to understand that His time is not our time. By faith, the tasks will be completed – in God’s time. By faith, needs will be met – in God’s time. By faith we are called to do God’s work – to teach, to praise, to serve, to forgive, to be patient. Whatever the future holds here on the Green, God is before us and behind us and beside us and within us to guide us along the way. As you read this month’s SPIRE, plan to take advantage of the opportunities to walk with God and with each other in October. I look forward to walking with you. May God bless you richly, each and every one, in your journey. See you in church!

-Ethelyn L. Fulton, Clerk of Session