Article written for the local Largs newspaper, 1st September 2021.
I’m writing during the final week of July. August holidays beckon but so does getting my Thought for the Week ready in time for 1st September! Rather than rush something after the holiday, when my brain has shrunk even further, I am doing it now.
I detest rushing; so does my blood pressure. Taking things calmly, calculating how much time is needed for a job, starting it punctually and carrying it through gradually to the end – that’s much better! Have you ever seen a rose rush to blossom, or an acorn sprint into an oak tree? The sun itself is relentlessly on time, the hours of the day as calm, cool and collected as can be.
We, too, don’t jump stages in our development. Knowledge in the mind accumulates only gradually. There’s no shortcut from arithmetic to nuclear physics. The heart, too, needs time to love and be loved.
In the same way, the deepest reality of the human spirit unfolds properly only when it takes time, and is given time, to blossom. Spirituality isn’t a race. In the life of the soul, there are no Olympic medals to be won by sheer grit and grind.
Just as he gives growth with exquisite patience to the least blade of grass, the Lord Jesus Christ exercises infinite patience, tenderness and compassion with the “tiniest” soul. All we have to do is will and welcome him as he draws us out into the open beauty of our deepest identity.
One of the greatest signs of human dignity is to abide God’s timing in bringing us to the glory he has in store for us. However small the mustard seed, he will make it grow into the biggest of shrubs. All we need do is let him – not rush him!