Let It Grow (Slowly)…

Has this happened to you before?

• You're waiting in line at Costco or your favorite grocery store and the person in front of you not only has like a 100 items in her cart, she's busy chatting away with the cashier?

• Or when you are driving you car in the furthest left lane of the freeway but the car in front of you seems to not understand the concept of a "fast lane" because they are moseying along at a cool 55mph?

• Or when you're dining at a restaurant and it's been 40 minutes since the time you placed in your order and food still hasn't showed up yet?

How did you feel?
Annoyed, frustrated, angry?

Truth be told, many of us do not like it when things move too slowly.  One of my favorite scenes that captures this so well is from the movie Zootopia - where the sloths who work at the city's version of the DMV -  not only speak slow, work slow, they even laugh slow ("haaaah, haaaah, haaaah...")  And the reaction that the main characters have to the slowness of these hard yet slow working sloths is very much akin to our reactions when things move too slowly for our liking.  In fact, I think our society overall looks at slowness as a bad and negative thing.  No wonder we use the term "slow" in a derogatory fashion when describing someone who doesn't think or act as quickly as we might like.  

But here's the thing, I’ve noticed that when God works, often times, He likes to work slowly - sometimes, a little too slowly, like He’s working in slow motion. I know some people in certain Christian circles often talk about these "suddenlies" of God. But more often than not, it seems to me that God is actually in the business of the slow.  When I reflect upon my life or the lives of those whose stories are captured in Scripture, it appears that more often than not, God actually works "slowly" more than "suddenly". 

• Take Abraham - who had to wait about 25 years before His promise child arrived…

• Or the Israelites who spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness before God eventually took them into the Promised Land…

• Or how about the Messiah, who came into the world only after a 500 year-long period of waiting and silence…

It appears that when God works, He likes to take his time.  

And that is true for our new beginnings as well…

Last month, I shared about how new beginnings are not just about "beginnings" but about "endings" as well.  But here's the other thing that you need to understand about "new beginnings" - new beginnings don't just happen suddenly.  Instead "new beginnings", like many of the movements of God in our lives, emerge and form slowly over time.  To outsiders, it may seem like this new beginning, new thing, or the announcement of it came suddenly out of nowhere.  But the truth is, new beginnings and many of the movements of God in our lives usually grow, form, and develop over time.  

Going back to Isaiah 43:19, God announces to His people, "Behold, I am doing a new thing" and He follows that up with an interesting statement.  He says that this "new thing" has been "springing forth".  The word that God uses to describe the onset and emergence of this new thing or new beginning is the Hebrew word "tsamach".  And "tsamach" is more closely translated "sprout" - like a plant that begins to sprout out of the ground and begins to grow over time.  

Now, I’m not a botanist by any means but one thing I do know is that with some plants, before they can spring up, they actually first grow down beneath the soil.  In fact, it is widely known fact that many plants and even trees spend a considerable amount of time growing down (in their roots) before sprouting and growing up.

I think much of what we can observe in nature is reflected in our own Christian experience as far as spiritual formation is concerned. Many times, before the sudden appearance, emergence, or noticeable change in one's life, direction, orientation, etc. - there seems to be a forming, a developing, and growing that takes place beneath the surface, at the level of the soul.  Much of the new beginnings, new directions, or new movements of God do not just come out of nowhere.  In fact, God spends a good amount of time in slowly preparing the person, developing and cultivating their character, and forming the individual before this new thing springs forth and takes shape.  In other words, the new things of God don't just suddenly appear out of nowhere.  In fact, they are the culmination of a long, slow, and steady process in which God forms, cultivates, and develops things on the interior of a person’s life.  

Come to think of it, this was actually my process.  I know many people in my church family were taken aback and surprised about the announcement of our transition out of our leadership role.  But that announcement and resulting transition was the culmination of a process that was years in the making.  Where slowly but surely, beneath the surface, at the level of my soul, God was forming, growing, and developing what would ultimately result in a new direction, new vision, and new assignment for my life.  Even now, as much as this new thing has sprouted and is in motion, my sense in these first two months is that underneath the surface, at the level of the soul, things are still forming, growing, and developing.  

So with that in mind, here are some questions for you to reflect on for this month:

1) What do you sense that God is forming, growing, and developing in you currently in this season of your life?

2) What new desires (or even old ones for that matter) do you find to be awakening (or reawakening for that matter) in your soul? 

3) When you are quiet and alone with God, what new ideas and new thoughts  do you feel stirring within your spirit?

Take some time to reflect and ruminate on that this month - because again, when God works and moves, He likes to take His time - time to form, time to cultivate, and time to grow slowly on the interior of our lives.  

In closing, I would like to share a poem that was sent to be my a dear mentor and spiritual director.  It is appropriately entitled "New Beginnings" by poet John O'Donahue:

In out-of-the-way places of the heart, 

Where your thoughts never think to wander, 

This beginning has been quietly forming, 

Waiting until you were ready to emerge. 

For a long time it has watched your desire, 

Feeling the emptiness growing inside you, 

Noticing how you willed yourself on, 

Still unable to leave what you had outgrown. 

It watched you play with the seduction of safety 

And the gray promises that sameness whispered, 

Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent, 

Wondered would you always live like this. 

Then the delight, when your courage kindled, 

And out you stepped onto new ground, 

Your eyes young again with energy and dream, 

A path of plenitude opening before you. 

Though your destination is not yet clear 

You can trust the promise of this opening; 

Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning 

That is at one with your life's desire. 

Awaken your spirit to adventure; 

Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk; 

Soon you will home in a new rhythm, 

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.