The Gift of Time

Eph. 4:14-16 (NIV)

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves... Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Then. We will grow. Become. This is the language of growth, of transformation, of deep soul work. And it's the language of time - of patience.

What if patience is not just a fruit of the spirit, of the spiritual life of drinking in God's love, but also a key element of that growth process? Can we treat ourselves gently? Give ourselves the grace and time we need to become more and more fully who we truly are?

Read over this invitation from poet Rainer Maria Rilke and then take a few minutes just to sit with the thoughts and feelings raised inside you. Thank God for the questions - for the journey.

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” - Rainer Maria Rilke