Wait for God’s Hour

I’ve heard it said that grace does not make it easy, grace makes it possible. Part of me doesn’t like to hear that. Part of me is always looking for the “sweet spot”…that place where everything falls into place and life is easy and simple and you hit the golf ball of life 400 yards straight as an arrow. I think that may very well happen in heaven, but it doesn’t often happen on earth. 

Dom Augustin Guillerand, a French Carthusian monk who I never heard of until today, said this about that: “It is within the scope of God’s plan that we should come up against evil in this world, and have to fight a way for ourselves through it. Alone, with a few faithful disciples, Jesus lived in the midst of constant hostility. It is so in the whole history of humanity. Only such a thought can enable us to put up with the numberless abuses which surround us—in ourselves and others, in the Church and in the world at large.” This is Howard Cosell, I mean Fr. Guillerand, telling it like it is. …… life is hard therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees (Heb. 12:12), and get on with it. 

Fr. G. then gives some advice to help us. He says, “On the practical plane, do not rush your decisions, lest you spoil God’s plan by substituting your own way of looking at things….. wait for God’s hour. God’s patience is more than we shall ever understand. He could break the resistance of all evildoers, and make all evil cease in an instant, but he does not. Adjust, then, your pace to his…. we must not be surprised if, while the cross lasts, we experience no feeling of elevation or consolation; that, on the contrary, we are often incapable of raising up our spirits or of thinking of the good effects which will follow later. More often than not, all we can do at the moment is to accept and offer up our distress to our Lord. (“Trusting That The Lord Is Guiding Us”, Dom Augustin Guillerand, O. Cart. Magnificat, 2-6-25) 

 “More often than not, all we can do at the moment is to accept and offer up our distress to our Lord.” That’s been my personal experience over the last many years. Sometimes things just don’t seem to work out as I had hoped and planned. I need to just keep on keeping on. I need to keep praying and keep doing the right thing. I need to keep trusting that God is in charge and his plan will be accomplished in the perfect way and perfect time. And you know what ….. I’ve often experienced that…. a good end, a good answer arriving at the right time, maybe even the perfect time. God in his economy often seems to be doing many things at once…..perhaps answering my prayer, but also changing me at the same time.

So let’s not be discouraged, let’s not quit. As we “keep on keeping on” in following our Lord, all will be well with our soul. And that is very good news.