SPEAKING TO THE SOUL

“This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled.
If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.”Habakkuk 2:3 

Procrastination, generally understood as failing to make a decision, comes from the Latin, meaning “for tomorrow” pro crastinus. I have a tendency to do this as I always want to ensure that things make sense to me. Where they don’t, I crave time to think things through to a place where I find some coherence. The prophet Habakkuk, of whom nothing is known but his name, here offers a timely reminder. God’s will emerges in due time and we can safely get on with life without fretting over the detail.

I have largely adopted a pattern of simply doing what needs to be done in both my business and in St Cuthbert’s Oratory without always needing to settle in my own head its ultimate purpose. I admit I do not and cannot know the varied ways of God. However, I am invited to apply myself to tasks and opportunities that come my way.

During Lent earlier this year, at Jayne’s instigation, we stopped watching TV. We had created a list of things we wanted to do as a means of supporting us in this quest. One sacrifice was missing the majority of the Six Nations rugby matches and one benefit was that I stopped watching the news. Instead we worked through a lifetime of photos, organising those we chose to keep and distributing others to family. We played board games and engaged in exercise and conversation. Life became focused in the here and now and world events failed to troubled us.

I increased my confidence that God has a purpose that will be worked out. I simply needed to do two things in response. Firstly, in my daily prayers entrust the world and global events into God’s care, with no need to know any details, and also to get on with serving God in the immediate and everyday tasks that lay before me. I emerged more relaxed, at one with myself and had lost my insatiable need to binge on Netflix.

QUESTION
What fears or thoughts may be holding you back from serving God in the things He has given you?

PRAYER
Lord, I am grateful that the world is in your hands and not mine.