{"id":60,"date":"2016-02-09T18:49:31","date_gmt":"2016-02-09T18:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoikonomist.com\/?p=60"},"modified":"2016-02-09T18:53:55","modified_gmt":"2016-02-09T18:53:55","slug":"the-slow-work-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoikonomist.com\/?p=60","title":{"rendered":"The Slow Work of God"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

I recently came across this quote from\u00a0Teilhard de Chardin<\/strong>, a French philosopher and priest, writing back in the early twentieth century. His\u00a0gentle exhortation\u00a0continues to speak a much needed word\u00a0to us\u00a0some\u00a0hundred years later.\u00a0I guess immediate gratification has always been an addiction for us humans, but it clearly is becoming one\u00a0we are able to feed with more ease and consistency.<\/p>\n

While Teilhard seems to speaking of\u00a0the slow work of God in the individual, I think his words can equally express the slow work of God shaping and guiding a community, a people, a church. People are the ultimate speed bump. The more you add the slower things get. But in the economy of grace, we have been given all the time in the world to become what God intends us to be, both individually and communally.<\/p>\n

As we enter into the season of Lent, may we delve deeper into the super-abundant grace of our God to\u00a0receive that which makes possible the kind of patient trust Teilhard so beautifully describes:<\/p>\n

Patient Trust<\/b>
\nAbove all, trust in the slow work of God.<\/em>
\nWe are quite naturally impatient in everything<\/em>
\nto reach the end without delay.<\/em>
\nWe should like to skip the intermediate stages.<\/em>
\nWe are impatient of being on the way to something<\/em>
\nunknown, something new.<\/em>
\nAnd yet it is the law of all progress<\/em>
\nthat it is made by passing through<\/em>
\nsome stages of instability\u2014<\/em>
\nand that it may take a very long time.<\/em><\/p>\n

And so I think it is with you;<\/em>
\nyour ideas mature gradually\u2014let them grow,<\/em>
\nlet them shape themselves, without undue haste.<\/em>
\nDon\u2019t try to force them on,<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

as though you could be today what time<\/em>
\n(that is to say, grace and circumstances<\/em>
\nacting on your own good will)<\/em>
\nwill make of you tomorrow.<\/em><\/p>\n

Only God could say what this new spirit<\/em>
\ngradually forming within you will be.<\/em>
\nGive Our Lord the benefit of believing<\/em>
\nthat his hand is leading you,<\/em>
\nand accept the anxiety of feeling yourself<\/em>
\nin suspense and incomplete.<\/em><\/p>\n

Teilhard de Chardin<\/h4>\n

(1881-1955)<\/h4>\n

<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently came across this quote from\u00a0Teilhard de Chardin, a French philosopher and priest, writing back in the early twentieth century. His\u00a0gentle exhortation\u00a0continues to speak a much needed word\u00a0to us\u00a0some\u00a0hundred years later.\u00a0I guess immediate gratification has always been an addiction for us humans, but it clearly is becoming one\u00a0we are able to feed with more … Continue reading The Slow Work of God<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formation","tag-quotes"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Slow Work of God - The Oikonomist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theoikonomist.com\/?p=60\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Slow Work of God - The Oikonomist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I recently came across this quote from\u00a0Teilhard de Chardin, a French philosopher and priest, writing back in the early twentieth century. 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