This is a reality of almost all human beings. We wish to be all things at once. We are quite naturally impatient in everything and would like to reach the end of everything without delay. We wish to skip the intermediate stages of any activity we are doing and yet attain the same result as if we had gone through the whole way. We are anxious while on the way to something, and would like to be at the destination in no time. We forget that it is the law of any process to go through some stages, which sometimes include a lot of instability, energy and time. We forget that even our ideas mature gradually, and that they should be allowed to develop without any haste.
If only we would ask ourselves why God had to go through such a long process for saving humanity through the incarnation to the death, and finally the resurrection of Jesus, when he could have used a simpler and may be a quicker way. If only we would learn from nature how things have to grow from tiny seeds into glorious forests and plantations. Yes, if only we would learn from the cycle of seasons how one event has to give way to another for the benefit of the harmony of the climate. We should avoid forcing things as though we could be today what time will make us tomorrow. It is only with patience and trust in God that we can attain that which his spirit gradually forms in us. Of course, this is not easy. It requires the knowledge that God does not lead us by the year, by the months, or even by the day. He does it step by step, and every moment the path to our destiny unfolds before us. We only participate in our own way in what God has decreed. We cannot do everything; yet God in his goodness does not wish to do everything, for that would make us useless puppets or robots. As Christians called to evangelize others, we should learn that each day we plant seeds that will grow one day, and continue watering seeds that others planted, knowing quite well that we, like them, may perhaps never see their fruits – for only God knows the destiny of all things. St Paul knew this so well that he said:
6I
planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth, 7Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is
anything, but only God, who causes the growth. 8The one who plants and the one who waters are equal, and each will receive
wages in proportion to his labour. 9For we are God’s co-workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
10According to the grace of God given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation and another is building upon
it. But each must be careful how he builds upon it, 11for no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there,
namely Jesus Christ. 12If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or straw, 13the
work of each will come to light, for the day will disclose it. (1 Cor. 3:6-13)
For us, human beings, this feeling of dependency is not the best; yet there is a sense of liberation in realizing that some things come with time and others may never come in our life time. This enables us to do all things well because, after all, it is not our duty to complete the project, but to carry it on at the point we find ourselves in time. It takes trust in God to accept that the project can go on without us, patience to accept that he knows best no matter how long it takes for a certain goal to he achieved, and great humility to accept that whatever little good we can do now is an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest. This is what differentiates master builders and workers. It is not difficult to see that even St. Paul in the above mentioned text did not claim to be a master builder, but only said that he acted like one. This is what all of us are called to be: to accept patiently that we are workers not master builders; for God holds the destiny of all things in his hands.
