Patience and Accepting God’s Plan

Rosemary Bogdan discusses the patience necessary to believe and trust in God’s plan.

I have always thought of patience as the blessed ability to stay at peace while having to wait. I guess this definition reveals that patience is indeed something I very much need.

I was recently struck with the meaning of the phrase to practice patience. Yes, patience must be practiced. If you want to become skilled at anything, you must practice. A musical instrument, fluency in a foreign language, artistic skill, skill in writing: they all require taking the time to perform the task repeatedly with the goal of improving one’s ability. If I am asking the Lord to give me patience it should be no wonder that He gives me so many opportunities to practice it.

In his wonderful book Learning the Virtues That Lead You to God, Romano Guardini goes beyond my simplistic definition:

Patience is wisdom, understanding what it means that I have this and not something else, that I am of this nature and not another, that the person with whom I am associated is as he is and not like another. I would like it to be different, and by persevering effort, I may be able to change many things, but basically things are as they are and I must accept that.

Yes, patience requires acceptance. God is in charge. I am not. He has His plans, and I don’t get to know them in advance. I must simply trust. He is at work.

Sometimes there are circumstances that seem dire and we want to do something. God might be calling us to action ... but often He is not. Rather, He is asking us to practice patience and to trust Him. We can often do harm by trying to force solutions before God’s timing. Think of baking a cake. If you must have the cake right away and you take it out of the oven too soon, you will ruin it. God’s plans often take time, and we must wait upon Him. He always has a plan.

Perhaps this Lent we have been working on an area of sin or a character flaw in our lives. Guardini writes, "We would like to be rid of one characteristic, or to possess another, and we are annoyed at being just what we are.” God loves us just as we are. Who are we to look at ourselves with disgust or annoyance? Sure, we must always repent and try to do better. But let’s not fall into the trap of thinking that because we fall into sin that we are unworthy of the Father’s love or evil in His sight. He sees us as His beautiful creation: weak, broken, flawed, but beautiful, nonetheless.

Click to tweet;
If I am asking the Lord to give me patience it should be no wonder that He gives me so many opportunities to practice it. #CatholicMom

null

When it comes to planting, or watching for new growth, gardeners know full well that beauty takes time. I could look for an hour at these perennials braving a cold March blustery day in Michigan, but I will not see them change at all. I can look at the dead leaves burying them and think that this plant does not have a chance. But I would be wrong.

They will come through. They always do. I know from previous years that they will push right through those dead leaves. They will not die, even if there is a frost. They will persevere and become the beautiful flowers they do every year. But it takes time, and it takes faith. Faith that the Author of all life will bring them through. He always does.

All good things take time and God is working on us and all the people we love. We won’t see changes taking place before our eyes. No. Sometimes it will take many years, not just the few weeks it might take a flower to develop.

We will need patience to trust and wait for God’s plan to unfold.

Again and again, we shall turn to Him: "Lord, have patience with me, and give me patience so that the possibilities granted to me may, in the short span of my lifetime, those brief years, grow and bear fruit!” (Romano Guardini)

As we approach this week before Palm Sunday let’s remember all that the Lord has done for us. Then, recognizing our weakness, let’s pray that God, in His mercy, will help us to open our minds and hearts to all the help that he wants to give us, the help we so desperately need. Then, one step at a time, may we approach the Holy Week ahead doing our best, with what little we have, to be the people He wants us to be.

Lord, have mercy.

null