Have you been finding it hard to make long-lasting changes lately? I know I have. Every time I think I’m making progress with some area of my life, something comes up and I end up taking two or three steps back.
As I’ve been talking with other people over the last couple of weeks, I have realized that I’m not alone in feeling this way. Maybe you do too?
Many of us have this sense of being stuck. We are trying to make changes, but things keep getting in the way of real progress. What’s the answer?
I think it might be that we’re rushing things a bit too much. It might be helpful for us to slow down a bit, while at the same time continue to move forward. Slowing down will give us an opportunity to judge if we’re heading in the right direction. Things seem so volatile right now, and taking our time will allow us to better evaluate what’s happening. If we need to adapt our plan, so be it.
Here’s some words of wisdom from the Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,
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 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
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your good will)
will make of your 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.
