Below this letter, you will see the poem/prayer by the French Jesuit priest, scientist, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher, and teacher, Teilhard de Chardin. It is a prayer I return to time and time again in my life and spiritual journey. The phrases that often challenge and encourage me are:
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We are impatient of being on the way to do something unknown, something new.
Accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.
It has been a joy and a privilege to serve ELPC over the last six months as I have watched us patiently trust God and one another as we move through this time of unknowing and newness. I have seen our church in a variety of ways, embodying a patient trust in the slow work of God. I see our elders asking probing and difficult questions about our church; wrestling with God and one another about our past, present, and future. I see people in our church compassionately caring for their friends who are sick and ill in the hospital though prayers, presence, and advocacy. I see our PNC prayerfully combing through the CAT scan survey positioning themselves in a humble posture of listening to your voices and God’s voice allowing their ideas grow, mature, and develop. I see our staff sacrificially serving, giving their time, energy, and talents to steward our mission and vision; care for our building and humbly serving behind the scenes to administer the everyday ministries of our church. In Sunday worship, I’m hearing stories of the good news of the Gospel unfolding and being lived out in our congregation, neighborhood and beyond. These are just a few of many areas where I see a new spirit forming within us. Each of you being faithful to the day-to-day work and service of God in and through ELPC helps me trust in the slow work of God and believe that God’s hand is indeed guiding us. I wonder what you see and hear. I hope you will tell one another when you see each other being who God made them to be.
As we journey through this time “being on the way to do something unknown, something new” I urge us to look for the signs along the way that are reminding us of God’s faithfulness. For it is indeed only God who will be able to say what this new spirit gradually forming within ELPC will be. So, let’s continue to work together to give God the benefit of believing that God’s hand is leading us! And when the waiting gets dark and long and it is easier to return to the way things were and worry, tiredness, and sadness creeps in (which it will), lets remind one another to that God’s hand is leading us and “accept the anxiety of feeling ourselves in suspense and incomplete.”
—Pastor BJ
Patient Trust
Above all, trust in the slow work of God
We are quite naturally impatient in
everything to reach the end
without delay.
We should like to skip the
intermediate stages,
We are impatient of being on the way to do 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.
And so I think it is with you.
your ideas mature gradually—
let them grow,
let them shape themselves,
without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
And accept the anxiety of
feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ