Trust in the Slow Work

By Carol Woolum Roberts

This week in one of the Red Letter Christians Wake Up Newsletters I receive in my email, this was written in the letter:

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, "Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We would like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet, it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability- and that it may take a very long time. Above all, trust in the slow work of God, our loving vine-dresser."

I often look at the fast pace of our culture, and we often find it hard to trust the slow work of God.  We are impatient.  We want it now.  But that is not the best way.

During our “Create Quiet” retreat, we waited for the slow work of God.

This week, working with teenagers during our “Grow Your Creativity Camp”, they often want things to happen right away.

They don’t want to make mistakes.  If mistakes are made, they are a failure.  When do we learn that mistakes mean you are a failure?

We have done a different visual art project each day.  Some of the students are very good at drawing and painting, while others find it very uncomfortable.  I was the same way. 

Today I asked one of our campers if they had been told at some point in their life that they were not good at art.

The response was yes.  In kindergarten, (kindergarten!!), this little five-year-old had colored something with crayons and showed it to the teacher.  The teacher was not satisfied with the artwork and told the student to go back and erase it.  The crayon coloring was supposed to be erased.  Why? 

I remember feeling the same as a young elementary student.  Every year there would be an art contest sponsored by a local women’s group.  Every year as an assignment in our class, we would create a picture to be entered into the art contest.  Mine was never chosen for a prize. I often blame my impatience.  I didn’t want to color in the lines.  I didn’t want to conform to the “elementary art norms” this contest was striving for us to adhere to so we could win a prize.

One of my friends was always awarded one of the art prizes.  (At least that is what I recall.)  The judges liked her work.  But the funny thing is, now, as an adult, she is one of the most non-conforming people I know.  So somewhere along the way, she found her voice and was willing to let the world know that it was okay not to color in the lines.

But that takes time.  That is a slow work of God.  We need to be willing to go through those intermediate stages in life and experience some instability to find our voice.  To find out who we are.  To not always conform to or follow the rules.  To listen and create what we are meant to create.  To live the life we have been created to live.

It takes courage.  It takes time.  It takes patience.

I am going to turn 60 years old on Monday.  This notion is finally making sense to me.  That slow is good.  Patience is good.  Finding the true me is good.

We must trust in the slow work of God.

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What is something you would like to do in your life that may cause you to “color outside the lines”? 

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