Meditation 7 — Over Time

Wheat Field in Rain1

See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop. — James 5:7

“Nothing retards progress in a virtue so much as wanting to acquire it with too much haste.” — St. Francis de Sales

In a prayerful spirit, listen to the song while meditating and reflecting upon the art, the Scripture, and the quote. As you meditate upon each, simply stay attentive to what the Holy Spirit is causing you to notice. Then, turn your noticing into a prayer: ask, “Lord, why are You having me notice this?” and listen for His voice.

“Time and Patience” by Cura Anim

A spiritual friend and mentor of mine were once talking about how we go about acquiring virtue, and just how frustrating it can be when it seems like progress isn’t happening. To this, he said, “Time and patience are our greatest warriors.”

I like that.

Transformation into Christlikeness has its own pace. It is nothing that we could ever manufacture or force. We just show up and trust the process — a process which belongs to God alone.

I love how the New Testament constantly is talking about fruitfulness. This idea of “fruitfulness,” if we sit with it long enough, can really be quite a disruptive idea to our modern sensibilities — especially in Western cultures like the USA where “up and to the right” is the cultural ethos of what “progress” should look like. For many of us and the contexts we find ourselves in — even in church settings — it’s all about “getting results.” We then map this idea onto our own transformation or spiritual life to our detriment.

“Productivity” or “getting results” just isn’t a value that’s held up in the New Testament, however.

But, “fruitfulness” is.

If you think about a fruit tree, you’ll notice that it doesn’t try really hard to get the results of fruit. It simply roots itself in the soil, and then natural processes and time do their thing, and eventually (yet imperceptibly), fruit is born.

So it is with our progress and our pursuit of Christlikeness. At the end of the day, we just focus on abiding (see ‘Meditation 4’) and let the natural processes do their thing.

“Time and patience are our greatest warriors.”

I love this from the French priest Fr. Jacques Philippe:

How many times do we lose our peace because we find that our sanctification is not progressing rapidly enough, that we still have too many faults? But this does nothing but delay things!2

Though a simple idea, it’s important to know that time is key to our spiritual progress. To force anything on, before its time, will have the opposite effect. There is a pace to our virtue. We just get to show up each day and open ourselves to God. He will do the transforming, in His time, in His way, and in accordance with His will.

Like a farmer does with his land, we get the ‘land’ of our soul ready and keep it ready. We focus on the soil. We facilitate and create conditions that make ready a harvest of righteousness, in its time.

One way to frame or understand a “Rule of Life” (which we explored in ‘Meditation 4’) is to think of it as the ‘way’ we ‘show up’ to life. There’s no real invitation to this week’s Meditation, due to its passive nature. However, we are wise to pause regularly and to think about our current lifestyle, and question if it is conducive to the transformation we are longing for.

There’a a maxim in the business world that maps pretty well onto our lives as a whole: “your system is perfectly designed to give you the results you’ve been getting.”

When it comes to our spiritual formation, we want a wise and good ‘system’ (read lifestyle) that is conducive to deep, beautiful transformation over time.

So, a simple invitation: review your “Rule of Life” and see about any tweaking or pruning that might be necessary. This is important because it’s to think about how we are ‘showing up’ to life; that is, to think about what kind of ‘conditions’ we are creating: are they conducive to a harvest of righteousness or death?

Lord Jesus, may we be patient with our spiritual formation. Like a good farmer would do with his land, may we do with our souls — tend the land and create conditions conducive to a bountiful harvest. Then, may we peacefully let what happens, happen. Amen.

This meditation is part of a series of meditations being released as a project called “Meditations on Change”. You’re invited to learn more and to follow along.