October 12: Trusting God’s Timing
- Scriptural: Ecclesiastes 3:11 — “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
- Reflection: Patience is essential during transitions. Taking time to breathe, take stock, reorient oneself, and become centered helps us find balance. We are so often in liminal spaces, between seasons, states of being, different parts of life, varied situations, and even locations.
We usually want to set the pace in our own lives. And indeed, we use our tools to manage time and outcomes to the best of our ability.
Yet part of resilience is also to name the current reality. Then adapt to circumstances as they are vs. how we wish they were or what we think they ought to be. And finally, to plan out small and sustainable steps to seek a path towards a desired objective.
Along the way, we lift up our expectations and hopes to God in prayer. And trust that God listens and answers. Yet heaven’s time is not our time. We are in a greater rush than Godself.
Then we rely on mindfulness, and being present to the current experience, the current moment. Along the way, we can wait actively. During such times, exercising patience, we may prepare. We can position ourselves to be ready for what may come next. Henri Nouwen writes, “Most of us consider waiting as something very passive, a hopeless state determined by events totally out of our hands. … But there is none of this passivity in Scripture. Those who are waiting are waiting very actively. They know that what they are waiting for is growing from the ground on which they are standing. Right here is a secret for us about waiting. If we wait in the conviction that a seed has been planted and that something has already begun, it changes the way we wait. Active waiting implies being fully present to the moment with the conviction that something is happening where we are and that we want to be present to it. A waiting person is someone who is present to the moment, believing that this moment is the moment.” - Spiritual Practice: Try this mindfulness exercise called STOP to cultivate patience when you need it:
- S: Stop what we’re doing or maybe saying to take a deliberate pause.
- T: Take a mindful breath or several mindful breaths. Narrowing the focus of attention to what the breath feels like as it moves in and out of the body.
- P: Proceed. Having taken the opportunity check-in, choosing what the wisest way to proceed. What next step is best to take, or not to take with the longer term in mind. If the body is still highly activated, maybe choosing to do the STOP practice again.
Song:
- “Wait for the Healing by Amy Grant: https://youtu.be/cKSRI5ezxzc?si=UCKnaX8bSYN9oRUL
God’s delays are not God’s denials. — Robert H. Schuller
Oct 12 Daily Devotional